Men entered Leeds restaurant with a curtain pole and broken bottle before leaving covered in blood after fight broke out

Henock Hedegu and Henok Girmay, both 22, were appeared at Leeds Crown Court today (Wendesday) for possessing offensive weapons after a large fight broke out inside One Love Bar and Restaurant on Roseville Road on the night of October 3, 2020.

Prosecuting, Philip Standfast explained that CCTV from outside of the restaurant showed the two men exiting the restaurant at 11.40pm. Hedegu, from Leeds, went to his car and then returned to the restaurant entrance with a curtain pole and glass bottle while Girmay, from Newcastle, is seen getting a glass bottle from a bottle bin before banging the bottom end on the ground and trying to break it.

Girmay, who had already sustained an injury, then grabbed the pole from Hedegu before the two men go to the ground floor entrance to the restaurant, which is on the first floor of the building.

Mr Standfast said that after coming out and then going back in again, Girmay can be seen walking out with “blood on his shirt and it appears that the pole is red”. Hedegu is then seen leaving and no longer has the bottle in his hand, while guests begin running from the side entrance.

The footage shows another man picking up a plank of wood and Hedegu is seen leaving in his car before the police arrive. The two men were arrested and in interviews with police and the probation service said that a fight had broken out in the restaurant involving a group of eight or nine man that resulted in Girmay being hit in the face with a bottle. The two said they had taken the weapons back in for self defence and insisted that they hadn’t entered the restaurant area.

Though initially there was a complainant in the case, it “became apparent to the prosecution he was no longer cooperating”. The staff at the restaurant would also not talk to police upon their arrival and so the charges were based solely on the CCTV footage taken outside.

The two men pleaded guilty at the first hearing and were both ordered to carry 120 hours of unpaid work for the community.