Son of ex-United legend punched friend in the face
SCHOLES’ SON LEFT EX-SCHOOLMATE DAZED AND BLOODIED, THEN TOOK PIC OF HIS FACE
PAUL Scholes’ son has been found guilty of assaulting a former school friend after punching him outside a pub in a boozy row after an England game.
Arron Scholes, 19, twice punched 21 year-old Robert Kemper leaving him ‘dazed’ and with a bloodied and bruised face.
He then began ‘laughing hysterically’ and took his phone out and appeared to be taking a photo of the man’s injured face – the pub’s landlady claimed.
The violence “blew up” outside the Granby Arms pub on High Street in Uppermill on Monday, June 18, last year – the night England played Tunisia in the World Cup.
The court was told Mr Kemper had watched the match with friends before heading to the Granby in the Saddleworth village.
The pair, who attended school together and had previously been ‘quite close friends,’ had not seen each other since the previous July, at Scholes’ 18th birthday party after which they fell out, the court was told.
On the night in question, the court was told Mr Kemper was standing in the doorway of the Granby pub as Scholes and his friend Devon Matthews entered. Mr Matthews says Mr Kemper called one or both of them a ‘p**sy’ as they walked past.
Shorty after coming inside, Mr Scholes went towards the door and punched Mr Kemper in the vestibule area of the pub, the court heard.
Afterwards he pushed him outside over a wooden bench and hit him again.
Robert Kemper claimed he was temporarily rendered unconscious and that combined with the alcohol had left him with little recollection of what had happened.
However, he said he remembered going over to Arron in the pub after seeing him and saying ‘hello’ “in a friendly manner”.
Mr Kemper said in the witness box: “I got very little response, thought nothing of it, walked away and went back to my friends. I knew Arron from school. Me and my friends were just discussing and talking about the football and then played some pool and I then went out for a cigarette.
“I was having a cigarette facing away from the door when I started receiving punches, I didn’t know where it was coming from or who was throwing them.
“I was just aware of walking out in a daze a few minutes later, I was still unsure of what happened. I was very confused about the incident – I just knew I was struck a number of times and I had not hit anybody else.
“I was told I was struck multiple times. I didn’t know at the time who had done it but I found out shortly after.”
He denied provoking Scholes saying: “There was no reason for me to do that. We had discussions about trying to repair our relationship.
“There was no reason for me to try starting something out of the blue.
“After it happened I did call him a ‘p***y.’ I said ‘you’re a p***y for hitting me from behind.”
Prosecutor Lucy Bridge said: “The landlady Deborah Hardy went outside and she saw the victim on his back being attacked by Arron Scholes.
“She was able to say that Robert Kemper did not retaliate at any time and she described the situation as an unprovoked attack.”
Mrs Hardy, who said she knows both men as customers, told the court from the witness box that she “ran out” of the pub after seeing Scholes hit Mr Kemper for the first time in the doorway. She said: “I saw a man who put his arm around Arron (inside the pub) and whispered something in his ear.
“That’s when he went out and began to attack Robert.”
The case was adjourned until later this month when Scholes will be sentenced, but the judge said he was most likely to receive a community penalty, such as unpaid work.