Lidget Green Riots - What Appears To Be The Truth

When rioting broke out in Bradford in April 2001 (a few months before the Manningham riots) the media reports were, to put it mildly, confusing. The role of the mysterious 'group of white men' was obscure. Apparently they'd attacked a pub where a Hindu wedding was taking place. So Muslim youth burned down a pub a few hundred yards away ! It didn't make sense.

I was particularly interested - and concerned - as I'd lived in the area for several years.

Look at this Telegraph article.

Trouble began when a group of about 30 white youths are believed to have clashed with members of the wedding party at the Coach House pub in Legrams Lane. The reception was in a private room, but fighting spilled out on to the street and cars in the car park were set on fire.

Supt Mark Whyman, of West Yorkshire Police, confirmed that officers had separated two rival groups, with the majority on one side being white youths.

So we appear to have white racists burning cars outside the Coach House.

Rioters went on to set fire to the Second West pub and looted the pharmacy in Horton Grange Road before setting fire to that. Terry Lawrence, 57, licensee of the Second West, said: "We were surrounded by about 100 Asians who started pelting some things in through the windows. There were road signs, concrete slabs and Yorkshire stone coming in and knocking out complete window frames.

"An 80-year-old woman was hit on the head by a rock as it came through and somebody else had a heart attack. Another man had been hit in the face with a piece of flying glass. You could see his teeth through his cheek. We were all so scared we moved everyone upstairs."

Uh ? Rioters went on to set fire to a pub, did they ? But these weren't the same rioters as before. If they 'went on', what from ? And what of the first lot of rioters ?

This timeline seems to have all the answers. It looks as if drunken white thugs may have started the trouble at the Coach House. But it wasn't they who finished it, nor was it they who set fire to cars. Or burned the pub. The poor Hindus in the pub were attacked by white thugs earlier and Muslim thugs later.

It is also plain that totally innocent white people were being attacked - and in several instances nearly killed - purely because of the colour of their skin.

Timeline

7.30pm

A 30-40 strong group of predominantly white males enter the public bar of the Coach House on Legrams Lane. They have visited other pubs - possibly in Clayton and Lidget Green - and some appear drunk and `unsteady on their feet'. Some `banter' between these and a small number of Indians in the bar becomes heated. A racist comment from one of the white group sparks a fight which spills onto the street outside. Bystanders become drawn into the disturbance outside the pub and the scale of the violence begins to escalate.

7.50pm

A group of white men chase an Indian across the road into the Bilal pizza takeaway opposite. When he escapes through a rear exit, the windows of the shop are smashed. Asian bystanders who saw this incident may have perceived it as an attack on their community, building tensions for further confrontation.

7.59pm

The first 999 call is made from the Coach House as a number of windows are smashed at the pub.

8.10pm

The battling gangs move a short way down Legrams Lane towards Clayton Road. Members of the white group board a bus which heads back past the Coach House. Here, a group of around 30 Asians point out the `troublemakers' to small team of police officers who have arrived on the scene. They stop the bus but the men jump out of an emergency exit. The officers try to keep the two factions apart but are unable to do so. Fighting breaks out again and the white group move down towards the Second West pub, shouting and chanting on the way.

8.15pm

Another fight breaks out outside the Second West. After a few minutes, this appears to die down and the white group move away.

8.30pm

Having travelled through Beckside Road and Spencer Road, the white group arrive in Woodhead Road where they begin fighting with a predominantly Asian crowd. This violent disturbance involves between 50 and 100 people. Police attempt to halt the disorder and three people are arrested. The white group move away towards the city centre and are not involved in the violence again.

8.30pm

At the same time, the Ukrainian Club in Legrams Lane is damaged by stone-throwing gangs. One attacker `clubs' a 47-year-old in the head with a stone. An older man suffers head injuries from a hurled missile.

8.55pm

Gangs gather outside the Second West pub and attack it with stones, bricks and other missiles. While customers and staff seek shelter upstairs, some of the mob force their way into building and take cash from the till and fruit machines. The premises are badly smashed up and fires started. Missiles are thrown through upstairs windows and a number of people are injured.

9.05pm

Another crowd surround the Coach House and start hurling objects through upstairs and downstairs windows.

9.10pm

A married couple are pulled from their white Vespa scooter in Legrams Lane by an angry mob. They are beaten until crowd realised the pillion passenger is a women. Local residents come out to help the victims.

9.15pm

The Willowfield Hotel in Legrams Lane is next to come under a hail of missiles, with windows being smashed.

9.30pm

A 18-year-old Asian man suffers head injuries after being hit by a stone in Legrams Lane.

9.35pm

The Coach House pub comes under a serious `sustained attack'. Members of the mob enter the pub and cause extensive damage throughout. Members of staff and customers gather upstairs, fearing for the lives. In the car park, eight vehicles are set alight as the violence reaches a peak.

9.45pm

A 50-year-old man and his family are driving through Legrams Lane when a lump of concrete is thrown through the window of his white Fiat Bravo. The man is hit in the face, breaking his jaw.

9.45pm

Close by, a crowd surrounds a red Ford Escort, driven by a 40-year-old woman. As she turns to her daughter in the back of the car, she is hit by a missile, badly bruising her back. She manages to drive away and undergoes hospital treatment.

10.30pm

A 28-year old Asian man in Legrams Lane is injured by a flying missile.

10.45pm

A crowd gathers outside the Oddfellows pub in Legrams Lane and begin smashing the windows with bricks and stones. Staff and patrons run upstairs for cover.

10.55pm

The windows are smashed at the Lloyds Pharmacy in Legrams Lane. Members of the mob force their way in and steal stock before setting light to some of the fixtures. The flames do not take hold although serious smoke damage is caused.

11pm

Nurse Julie Cook suffers serious facial injuries when a brick is thrown through a window of her Isuzu Trooper at the junction of Horton Grange Road and Great Horton Road. She later undergoes reconstructive surgery in a bid to save the sight in her right eye.

11pm

A 62-year-old retired teacher is hit in the arm by missile which flies through the window of her car in Horton Grange Road.

Shortly after 11pm, the last pockets of the disturbance end and police restore order to Lidget Green. At least 19 people have been assaulted, 54 cars attacked and hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage caused.