Student arrested after Hilda's Ball punch-up
Police rushed to St Hilda’s ‘Arts Fest’ ball last Saturday to break up a fight between two students. The fight broke out at 1.25am when bouncers refused to let a drunken Exeter student into the ball. The student turned violent, hurling racial abuse at the two black bouncers. One witness reported hearing the student shout, “You’re black. I’m white. This is my country.
A second man, a former Greyfriars student, saw the skirmish from inside the ball, and rushed through the porters’ lodge to help the bouncers. At this point the Exeter student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, ran round to the college’s back gate, where the two men engaged in a violent physical fight. The Exeter student, having been head-butted during the fight, was left with a bloodied nose and mouth. James Potts, a second-year English student at Merton, witnessed the fight.
Potts said, “One guy was on top of the other guy, attempting to make a citizen’s arrest and trying to read him his rights. “The first student then threatened the second that if he didn’t get off him, he’d make a citizen’s arrest instead.” Three security staff and a head porter ran to break up the fight. Within minutes, two police cars and a police van arrived and restrained the two students. Potts said, “The Exeter student kept asking to be arrested.
One police officer took him aside and tried to talk to him to find out what had happened, saying, ‘Stop crying: you’re not a bird’.” The police arrested the Exeter student for drunk and disorderly behaviour. Potts said, “When he refused to calm down, he was bundled into a police van. “He tried to resist his arrest and banged on the inside of the van as it drove away.” A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police confirmed, “There was a disturbance at St Hilda’s.
The police were called at 1.25 am and arrested a 20-year-old man for drunk and disorderly behaviour. “He was released later that day after being issued with a fixed penalty notice of £80.” Having searched the Greyfriars student, the police let him return to the ball. Potts said, “We saw him later on in the evening. He still had a few specks of blood on his face.
Lindsey Cullen, the St Hilda’s Ball President, said that the incident had not affected most people’s enjoyment of the ball. Cullen said, “The ball was a great success. The incident was isolated and dealt with very quickly. “It did not spoil people’s enjoyment of the night. Everyone I spoke to said how much they enjoyed the ball.” Olivia Bailey, St Hilda’s JCR President, said, “The ball was a very successful evening. The incident was, as far as I am aware, dealt with swiftly.
10th May 2007