A teenage girl has been arrested for an alleged assault on a female member of staff at King James’s School in Knaresborough this afternoon.

The girl is also being questioned by officers about criminal damage following today’s incident.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement:

“Police were called to King James’s School, King James Road, Knaresborough, at 3.10pm on Monday (20 March 2023) following reports of a disturbance involving a group of youths.

“Officers attended and arrested a teenage girl for an alleged assault on a female member of staff and criminal damage. She has been taken into custody for questioning.

“Two other teenage girls were arrested to prevent a breach of the peace.

“None of those arrested attend King James’s School.”

Carl Sugden, headteacher at the 1,575-pupil school, also told the Stray Ferret he could categorically say none of the pupils involved in the incident was from King James’ School.

In a letter to parents, Mr Sugden said:

A group of young people, who are not connected to King James’s School, came onto the school site with the clear intention of causing trouble.

“Our staff were on hand to stop them, they did not gain access to the building, but unfortunately we needed some police support to remove them.”

The police statement said “enquiries are ongoing to investigate the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and urged anyone with information to get in touch on the North Yorkshire Police website or by calling 101 and selecting option 1.

If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111. Quote reference 12230050161.

King James’ School, which has 1,575 pupils, is federated with Boroughbridge High School.

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Police have launched an appeal for witnesses after a woman was hit in the face in a Harrogate nightclub.

The female, in her 20s, received a large cut to her lip that required several stitches.

The incident happened at Revolucion de Cuba on Parliament Street on December 10.

North Yorkshire Police, which issued the appeal today, said the assault has only recently been reported “due to the distress and anxiety that the victim felt following the incident”.

It added the victim had “bravely allowed us to share a photograph of her injury” to aid the appeal.

According to police, the assault happened at about midnight as the victim went to retrieve her coat from behind a chair in the upstairs area of the club. Shortly after the attack, a group of woman spoke to the victim.

Investigating officer, PC Sylvia Matla said:

“I am appealing to the group of women to come forward along with any witnesses who saw what happened or can help us identify the suspect.

“This attack caused the victim apprehension and distress but more importantly, anxiety causing her fear of reporting this incident to the police for some time. I would like to reassure anyone who is the victim of crime, that North Yorkshire Police will investigate all crimes regardless of the time passed since it happened.”

If you have information you can email Sylvia.Matla@northyorkshire.police.uk or call her by dialling 101, selecting option 2, and asking to speak to her.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12230024522.

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Police are appealing for CCTV footage around the Granby Road area after a man was assaulted in Harrogate.

The victim was approached by an unknown man on Granby Road and assaulted, leaving him with minor injuries to his hand, wrist and ankle.

It happened on Monday, January 23, around 2.20pm.

Police describe the man they want to speak to as white, aged in his late 20s to early 30s, and around 6ft tall with dark, mid-length hair. He was wearing a red coat and carrying a dark rucksack.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said:

“We’re now requesting the public’s assistance to help establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.

“In particular, our officers are keen to hear from any local residents that may have CCTV or doorbell cameras which may have caught the incident.”

Anyone with information that could help the investigation should email beth.long@northyorkshire.police.uk, or call 101, select option two, and ask for Beth Long.

To report information anonymously, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, quoting reference number 12230013525.

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A man has been arrested on suspicion of assault after an incident in Harrogate last night.

Officers were called to a property in Devonshire Place where they arrested the man, who remains in custody today, according to North Yorkshire Police.

An ambulance was also called and a witness reported seeing a man in handcuffs being led away from the scene around 9pm.

The Stray Ferret understands officers have today been back in the area speaking to residents about the incident.

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A Birstwith man has been found guilty of assaulting a man and damaging his BMW after an altercation on Waterside, Knaresborough.

Aaron Peter Wilson, 43, had been riding a bike east along the road when his pedal collided with the black car, which was being parked by its owner.

Wilson did not stop at the scene, but carried on riding along the road.

Giving evidence at Harrogate Magistrates Court today, the victim said:

“I got back in and I pursued him with the car and parked up probably about 10 metres away from him. I got out and went to go and confront him.

“He was standing in the middle of the road with the bike at his feet. He was inflated, aggressive. He had flexed muscles and was trying to look a bigger person than he was.

“He was very threatening.”

He said Wilson then put his bike between the two of them, before grabbing the victim’s shirt around the collar, causing a deep scratch to his shoulder. He added:

“I was being choked because I had a button-up collar. The buttons were done up, except the top one.”

A member of the public arrived on the scene and the pair tried to stop Wilson leaving by blocking his path. Wilson then began knocking on nearby doors, before entering the garden of a house and lying down.

Meanwhile, the victim had called the police, who arrived a few minutes later and arrested Wilson.

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Defending, Martin Townend of Watson Woodhouse Solicitors, argued Wilson was acting in self-defence after the collision, which took place around 10.30pm on July 24 this year.

Mr Townend said the victim began shouting at Wilson and chased him in his car, with the other man joining him in a way that left Wilson fearing for his safety.

Giving evidence, Wilson – whose address on the court lists was in High Birstwith but who was said in court to be of no fixed address – said:

“Thank God I went into that property and laid down. They didn’t cross the threshold.

“They were threatening me. That’s why I went into the property and laid down, just hoping the police would turn up.”

However, magistrates were unconvinced by his argument and said his evidence as a whole was “really not consistent”.

They found him guilty of both causing damage to the BMW and assaulting the man by beating him.

Further charges

Wilson then changed his plea on two other charges relating to an incident at Nidderdale House on Cambridge Road, Harrogate, on July 16. He admitted assaulting a man by beating him, and using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

He also entered a guilty plea to causing more than £1,100 of damage to a Volvo in Harrogate on July 3.

Magistrates requested a pre-sentence report before he appears again for sentence on January 12.

In the meantime, he remains in prison for breaching a community order handed to him on a separate charge.

A 15-year-old girl has been sentenced to a 12-month referral order for her role in an attack on two police officers in broad daylight in Harrogate.

The incident took place in McDonald’s on Cambridge Road at around 5pm on April 1 this year.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to five charges. They included two counts of assaulting police community support officers, causing both actual bodily harm and one of affray, using or threatening violence which led people to fear for their safety, all in the fast food restaurant.

She also admitted a further charge of assaulting a police officer by beating her in Valley Gardens, and one of failing to comply with an exclusion order to leave McDonald’s.

North Yorkshire Youth Court, sitting at Harrogate Justice Centre, heard today that the teenager had been in McDonald’s with friends at about 5pm when there was confusion over whether or not they were banned from the premises. Police officers were called and the girls were found in the upstairs toilets.

In trying to remove them from the building, the officers came under attack.

‘Tussle’

Prosecuting, Melanie Ibbotson said:

“The PCSO goes to grab [another teenage girl] to stop her going back into the toilets and as she does so, there’s a tussle between them both.

“She was trying to grab hold of her, they were pushing and pulling each other, moving towards the top of the stairs, and at this point [the officer] activates her alarm.”

Ms Ibbotson said the 15-year-old then went to help her friend, but in trying to prevent herself being pushed down the stairs, the PCSO grabbed her hair.

The court was shown video evidence of the attack in which the PCSO was punched on the nose, causing heavy bleeding, and her colleague was hit around the face, injuring her jaw and cheek.

The teenagers then left the building and were found in Valley Gardens by other police officers. The 15-year-old spat at a police constable as she was arrested.

The PCSOs were taken to hospital. Neither suffered broken bones, but the PCSO with the injured nose required several months of treatment and could still face an operation to repair the damage inflicted on her in the attack.

The other PCSO had since left the police, the court heard, in part because of the incident in McDonald’s.

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Defending, Andrew Tinning of Grahame Stowe Bateson, told the court the teenager had never been in trouble with the police before and the incident had “come out of the blue”.

He said she had been working voluntarily with the youth offending team in the months since, in order to improve her behaviour. He said:

“When she was interviewed, she admitted what she had done, she apologised for her actions, she said she did have an anger issue and she had set out to protect her friend, as she saw it.

“It was a complete over-reaction to the situation she was faced with, but that’s what she did.”

Mother ‘shellshocked’

Her mother told the court she was “shellshocked” when she heard what her daughter had done, adding:

“She made the wrong friends and wrong choices and it just escalated from there.”

Mr Tinning said the girl had since been permanently excluded from school but was about to start at a new school where she could take her GCSEs. She was “academically gifted”, he said, and already had plans for the next steps in her career, supported by her mother.

She now had a part-time job and was at home every evening, the court heard, and had stopped associating with some of her previous friends.

The girls appeared at North Yorkshire Youth Court today

After magistrates retired to consider their sentence, bench chairman Alison Henny told the teenager they had seriously considered a term in a young offenders’ institute because of the severity of the attacks.

However, because of her age and her willingness to improve her behaviour, they had decided to give her a 12-month youth referral order during which she would be given support to make better choices and control her anger.

Mrs Henny said:

“The aim of the youth court is rehabilitation. We believe there’s a real prospect of you being rehabilitated.”

The magistrates ordered her mother to pay compensation of £100 for each of the injured PCSOs.

Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl, also from Harrogate, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting an emergency worker by beating her, affray, and failing to comply with an exclusion order, at McDonald’s on the same date.

She is due to appear for trial at North Yorkshire Youth Court on November 25.

Another 14-year-old girl has already been dealt with by an out-of-court disposal through the youth outcomes panel in relation to the same incident.

Police have appealed for a key witness to come forward after a 19-year-old man was assaulted in Starbeck.

The man was attacked by four teenage boys while walking across Belmont Park towards Wentworth Close on August 31 between 4.30pm and 5pm. He had to go to hospital with an eye injury.

A teenage girl intervened in the assault and the teenagers walked away.

As part of an investigation into the assault, officers are appealing for the girl to come forward.

A North Yorkshire Police statement added:

“There is no further description of the suspects, but the victim recalls one of the teenage boys was carrying a blue tooth speaker at the time of the assault.

“As well as appealing for the key witness to get in touch, officers are also asking for any information or private CCTV footage that could help to identify the suspects.

“If you can help the investigation, please email jemma.grant@northyorkshire.police.uk. You can also call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for Jemma Grant.

“If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12220156586 when providing details.”

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A Harrogate woman has received a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of assault.

Elaine Manaley, 55, of Dene Park, attacked the woman who was named in court on August 2 last year.

She denied the offence, which occurred at Dene Park, Bilton, but was found guilty at York Magistrates Court on Monday.

Court documents described it as an “appalling assault on a member of the public”.

Manaley was also found guilty of damaging a pair of glasses and a wrist watch worth £120 belonging to the same victim. She denied the charge.

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A warrant was issued for the arrest of Manaley when she failed to appear in court on Friday last week to answer the charges against her.

York Magistrates Court. Credit: Flickr.

She was subsequently arrested and appeared before magistrates on Monday where she admitted three instances of failing to submit to custody having been released on bail.

Manaley was sentenced to nine weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.

She was also ordered to pay a total of £894. This consisted of £620 to the Crown Prosecution Service and £274 compensation.

Update: Police have now identified the man pictured in the CCTV.

A teenager has been arrested following a serious assault in Harrogate town centre that left a man in hospital with multiple injuries.

It happened in the alleyway at the rear of Primark on Oxford Street at around 5.20pm on Friday (19 August).

Police want to speak to a man pictured by CCTV as officers believe he may have information about the incident.

The victim, a man in his 20s, was taken to hospital where he was treated for a fractured eye socket, black eye, lacerations to his face and cuts to his hands.

A 17-year-old male has been arrested following the incident.

A statement by North Yorkshire Police today said:

“Police are requesting the public’s assistance to help establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident as well as identifying a second male pictured by CCTV.

“Anyone with information that could assist the investigation should email graham.truman@northyorkshire.police.uk. You can also call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2, and ask for PC1563 Truman.

“If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

“Please quote the North Yorkshire Police reference number 12220147511.”

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North Yorkshire Police is appealing for information about an assault in Harrogate in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The incident happened on Parliament Street at about 4.30am when a man, who was walking up the street towards Piccolino restaurant, was grabbed by the throat and thrown to the ground.

A police statement this afternoon said:

“The victim received minor injuries in the incident and we are requesting the public’s assistance to help establish the full circumstances.

“In particular, we are appealing for information about a man who was stood with a small group of other men near to Piccolinos, who is described as around 35 years old, six feet tall and with short brown hair.

“Officers believe he may hold important information which would assist the investigation.”

Anyone who witnessed the incident, or who recognises the description of the man is asked to email gareth.evans@northyorkshire.police.uk.

You can also call North Yorkshire Police on 101. Quote reference 12220144503.

If you wish to remain anonymous you can also contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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