Bar at the centre of attack launches bid

Young man suffered life- threatening injuries in attack

By KenMcErlain ken. mcerlain@ jpress. co. uk 01733 588728 Twitter @ PTKenMcErlain

Owners of a city bar which had its opening hours cut following a brutal assault which left a man fighting for his life, have applied to extend them.

Bosses at Coco, in Broadway, have applied to extend the venue’s opening hours to 4amand their alcohol licence to 3.30am.

Last year the bar had its opening hours cut to 12.30am following a vicious assault on a young man outside the premises.

Twenty- one- year-old James Burke suffered lifethreatening brain injuries after being attacked by five men in the early hours of May 21.

Deividas Matusevicius (20), Lukas Banys ( 2 0 ) , Sarunas Galinas ( 1 9 ) , Ricardas Bartos ( 23) and Kestutis Baranauskas( 21), all ofChurch Walk, Peterborough, were all jailed for their parts in the assault.

Before the attack the bar had been allowed to open until 2am, but following a licensing review in June the hours were cut despite protests from owner Arfan Arif that this would result in him facing “serious financial difficulty”.

At the hearing, the committee also ruled that CCTV of an ‘ agreed standard’ be installed and that the premises supervisor be present during the sale of alcohol.

MrArifadmitted that on the night of the attack alcohol had been served after the previous 2am limit.

Mr Arif was unavailable for comment when contacted by the Peterborough Telegraph this week.

MrBurke’s father, William Burkepreviously saidhisson’s road to recovery would be lengthy.

Hesaid: “His personality is still there but he is struggling for his short- term memory. There was a time when he did not know what day of the week it was, but he is recovering and getting better.

“The doctors still do not know how permanent the problems are. When your brainisdamaged, it staysdamaged, soit maybepermanent.”

Nazim Khan, a councillor for the Central Ward in Peterborough, said: “We want to see bars in the city doing good business but we want people who use them to be safe.