Pub boss sacked over student

By Sunil Peck

A pub landlord has lost his job after he assaulted a disabled drinker in his pub.

Luke Barbanneau (right), who has cerebral palsy and is studying at Cambridge University, was drinking with friends in the Mill pub in Cambridge when the incident happened on 14 January.

He told the Cambridge Evening News: “The manager came over and talked to us – he seemed a bit drunk, but quite friendly. He asked who looked after me and I answered that I looked after myself.”

He added, in a later interview: “He picked me up by the back of the coat collar, and physically dragged me across the floor, to the door, telling other patrons that I was making it up. We presume that he was talking about my disability.”

Bill Hainsworth, the operations director of the company which owns The Mill, Passionate Pubs, told Disability Now: “I have had an investigation, I have had a disciplinary meeting and the manager has been dismissed.”

He added: “I have been in this industry for a lot of years and I have never encountered an incident of this type, which is why we viewed it as seriously as we did.”

Cambridgeshire police said a 47-year-old man had been cautioned for common assault.