No help for my staff left shaken by horrific incident, says club owner

A NIGHTCLUB owner in Newport has spoken out about the “horrific” incident that happened outside one of his venues in Cambrian Road.

In April, 19-year-old McCauley Cox seriously injured two women outside The Courtyard in Newport and has since been found guilty of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and detained for 12 years.

Iftekhar Haris, who runs The Courtyard along with a number of other venues in the city centre, gave evidence at the trial and has since said he’s unhappy with the lack of support for his staff.

Mr Haris, 51, who witnessed the incident, said: “It stuck with you, it was horrific. There was a smell about it, there was a sound about it. Where the incident happened, there was a lot of young people who saw quite a horrific incident and in normal circumstances there’s help offered. It wasn’t even offered to anyone who witnessed the horrific incident.

“Not just young people, even the staff who were working – why on earth didn’t we get any offers of help? I had to witness it several times on CCTV. I was so upset”

Mr Haris says one of the things that shook him the most was not knowing what had happened to the girls.

He said: “None of us knew from that day and I didn’t want to start asking questions about somebody who’s part of a court case.”

And the impact can still be seen, according to Mr Haris, who says his staff have become “more worried” and “jumpy”.

“One of my DJs has been affected by it, he was outside. End of the night, very much shook up. My doormen, they’re too proud to be saying anything but I know it’s affected them. Everybody’s jumpy now. People are more worried. People are moving people off the pavement on a regular basis.”

He’s calling for Cambrian Road to be closed off to vehicles via the retractable bollards at the end of the street, which aren’t currently in use (and weren’t at the time of the hit and run).

Mr Haris said he’s been campaigning for the road to be closed off for several years.

“The road didn’t get closed, we had a major incident,” he said. “Around the UK road closures [on busy nights] are a common thing – why can’t Newport do that? Even after such a serious incident, why has it not happened?”

Mr Haris, who also runs a number of Caribbean restaurants in south Wales, also said his licence was reviewed after the incident.

Following the “serious crime committed on Sunday, April 29”, a decision was taken to change the hours affecting the sale of alcohol at The Courtyard.

Gwent Police asked the council to undertake a fast-track review of the Courtyard’s licence aimed at cutting the hours alcohol is on sale in both the Courtyard and its neighbouring premises, Blind Tiger. An additional condition required the premises to ensure extra door staff would be on duty.

Mr Haris said: “Instead of being able to deal with the situation that just happened, I immediately had a review of my licence, which was totally unjust.”

A Newport City Council spokesman said: “A review of the Courtyard club licence premises was triggered by a request from Gwent Police to Newport City Council. The incident in April was a criminal act which had nothing to do with traffic restrictions.”

The Western Mail approached Gwent Police but they refused to give a comment at this time.