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Newbury Weekly News

Thursday, May 20, 2021

NEWBURY NEWS

Covid rage row sparked brawl Mother and daughter convicted of assaulting woman

Queen’s message for centenarian Tom A HAPPY 100th birthday was celebrated by That- cham man Tom Hawkins at the weekend.

The RAF veteran marked his centenary on Saturday, May 15, the same day the Roy- al British Legion was formed in 1921. Mr Hawkins, “a massive fan” of the Queen, was delight- ed to receive his special card with his family. His daughter Elizabeth Bai- ley said: “He was fantastic. He really did rise to the occasion. “He came over to my house in Ufton Nervet. We obviously couldn’t have a big celebra- tion, but it was a lovely after- noon. We had a lovely time and he was very, very happy at the end of it.” Mr Hawkins was born in Birmingham and didn’t leave until he joined the RAF at the start of the Second World War, taking him to Italy and France where he met his wife Fran- cine in 1944. The Newbury Weekly News reported, on Mr Hawkins’ and his late wife’s 65th wed- ding anniversary in 2011, that when Mr Hawkins was 25 and his bride 20, Mr Hawkins ap- proached his commanding of- ficer for permission to marry and was told: “No, leave the French rose in its own back garden. We had enough trou- ble in the First World War.” The commanding officer eventually changed his mind, but Mr Hawkins had to re- turn to Italy for another eight months and then his unit was sent to Austria for a year. The couple stayed in contact through letters, and they even- tually married in Lyon in 1946 before settling in the UK. They moved to London, where Mr Hawkins set up his own travel company, charter-

By JOHN GARVEY john.garvey@newburynews.co.uk @johng_nwn

TWO school staff members attacked one another in public during a Covid rage row over social distancing. Startled passers-by, includ- ing a toddler, looked on as the defendant’s teenage daughter joined the melee. In the dock at Reading Mag- istrates’ Court on Friday, May 13, was Mary-Ann Farley and her daughter Lucy. Both denied assaulting a woman by beating her outside Newbury Pets At Home store off the London Road on De- cember 30 last year. The court conceded that 42-year-old Mrs Farley, a kitchen assistant at The Downs School in Compton, was attacked first by the wom- an, who also works at a school and who had insisted on 3m social distancing, rather than the usual 2m. However, in an unusual step, the woman persuaded magistrates to grant her life- long anonymity before she would give evidence and so cannot be identified. The court heard Mrs Farley and her 19-year-old daugh- ter, who live at The Oaks in Newbury, were standing on a 2m social distancing marker in the store when they were accosted by the woman, who asked them to move back even further.

they left. She said that, as she and her daughter walked to their car, the woman was muttering loudly about the incident and so she approached to ask what the problem was. Mrs Farley said she did not expect the confrontation to turn physical and was shocked to be attacked. Both she and her daughter insisted they were trying to stop the assault and to defend themselves. Summing up, Ms Eastwood said the victim had been anx- ious about a new coronavirus strain. Mr Molloy said Mrs Farley had simply defended herself – “the camera doesn’t lie” – and that her daughter intervened to protect her mother. Magistrates convicted both the Farleys, although they conceded that the woman had attacked first and the pair may have feared further violence from her. Neverthess, they ruled the Farleys’ response was “un- reasonable” and went beyond lawful self defence. Both defendants were made subject to a 12-month condi- tional discharge, each ordered to pay £387 costs plus a victim services surcharge of £22 and each ordered to pay £100 com- pensation to the victim.

Later, in the car park out- side, CCTV footage showed Mrs Farley approaching the woman, who appeared to el- bow her in the ribs. The pair then grappled and Lucy Farley joined in the struggle. Lucy Eastwood, prosecut- ing, described it as “a very sustained assault in front of members of the public, includ- ing a toddler.” Giving evidence, the woman said Mrs Farley had launched an unprovoked attack on her, adding: “It was such a shock. It was such a vicious attack. “I was just trying to protect myself from the virus.” She described the incident as “like a pack of hounds cor- nering their prey”. Under cross examination by Steve Molloy, representing the Farleys, the woman admit- ted asking them to move fur- ther back in the store, insist- ing it was her “right” to do so. She vehemently denied el- bowing Mrs Farley in the ribs. Mrs Farley told the court that the woman’s manner in the store had been so aggres- sive that a shop assistant had offered to stay with them until

Tom Hawkins celebrates his 100th birthday

Ref: 20-0821B

was his card from Queen. It was a real highlight of the day for him because she means an awful lot to him.” Mrs Bailey said a glass of French wine a day was the se- cret to her father’s long life. “That was definitely my mother’s secret and I think he’s lucky as well, his father lived until 94 which was in- credibly rare in those days.” His daughters described him as “a kind, loving family man who is sensitive to others and generous to a fault. From humble beginnings to a pio- neering and highly successful businessman, his spirit of ad- venture has been an inspira- tion to us all.”

ing planes between the UK and the US and Canada. The couple weremarried for 71 years and had three daugh- ters, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Mr and Mrs Hawkins moved to Rosedale Gardens in Thatcham 18 years ago and his neighbours turned out to cele- brate his centenary. Mrs Bailey said: “The peo- ple at Rosedale Gardens are so sweet, they put balloons and banners outside his house. He got lots of cards, including the RAF and the Queen. “He is a massive fan of the Queen. He got a knock on the door, because it arrives by special delivery, and there

Indian variant case reported in West Berks ONE case of the Indian variant of Cov- id-19 has been identified in West Berk- shire. The council’s service director for com- munities and wellbeing Matt Pearce said no further cases, however, had been identified through sequencing of PCR test results in the past two weeks. He added that most cases seemed to be travel-related and the council was not seeing any community transmis- sion, with the dominant strain in the district still the Kent variant. Mr Pearce said: “We are seeing some out- breaks in primary schools and some in sec- ondary schools, which is reflected elsewhere across the country. That’s mostly because younger people have not been vaccinated, so we are working closely with our schools to manage those outbreaks. “There have been three weeks where our rates have gone up. We have come back down, but we do expect it to go back up as there are some outbreaks at schools.” He said the increase always looked worse when coming from such a low base, but urged the public to continue with the asymp- tomatic testing. “Our key message is getting parents of primary school children to do the testing. We also want people to get a PCR test if they are symptomatic.” Secondary pupils are no longer required to wear a face mask in schools, but Mr Pearce said the council was monitoring the situa- tion locally to see if it had any impact. Council leader Lynne Doherty (Con, Speen) added that testing would be “a key tool in our defence going forward”.

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