Brighton Pub Asks Council To Ease Restrictions Following 2021 Stabbing

Police and council licensing officers have objected to a pub company’s application to remove some of the licensing restrictions at one of its businesses.

The restrictions were among a number of conditions attached to the licence for Molly Malone’s, in West Street, Brighton, after a stabbing at the pub two years ago.

But now the pub’s owner, Indigo Leisure, wants to remove three of the conditions – and Brighton and Hove City Council and Sussex Police have objected.

As a result, a council licensing panel made up of three councillors is due to decide whether to allow the proposed changes at a meeting on Thursday (31 August).

Police ordered the pub to close in July 2021 after a 16-year-old boy stabbed a man twice in the leg as the man tried to stop a fight.

The boy was sentenced to a two-year detention and training order for assault causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) in November 2021.

Councillors suspended the licence in July 2021 after an application from Sussex Police and, following a full review in August 2021, a council licensing panel revoked the licence for Molly Malone’s.

Indigo Leisure appealed against the decision and, at Brighton Magistrates’ Court in May 2022, the bench approved a consent order which permitted the reopening of the pub subject to more stringent conditions.

But now Indigo wants to relax some of those conditions including a requirement for Molly Malone’s to operate as a “bona fide” live music venue after midnight, with musicians, not DJ-led music.

Indigo also wants to remove requirements to scan the identity documents of all customers after 10pm and to refuse entry after 2.30am. The licence permits entertainment and the sale of drink until 4am, with the pub closing at 5am.

Chief inspector Michelle Palmer-Harris, from Sussex Police, wrote to the council to say that the conditions in the “consent order” were discussed at great length at the court hearing last year.

Chief Inspector Palmer-Harris said:

“Sussex Police believe this variation shows a continued lack of understanding around safeguarding concerns in the area and keeping people safe in the night-time economy.

“Local concerns and issues that the area of West Street attract remain and no alternative provisions or conditions have been offered to mitigate that potential harm.”

Indigo’s solicitor, Nicholas Perkins, of Dean Wilson, wrote to the council in response to the objections from council licensing officials and the police.

Mr Perkins said:

“The difficulty of booking and retaining musicians to attend without default is hugely stressful for the management and this condition achieves nothing meaningful whatsoever.

“It has nothing at all to do with any of the issues that were ever alleged against the premises and plays no part in the ability of the premises to prevent issues arising in the future which they are more than capable of doing without this condition.”

Mr Perkins said that ID scanners were “overrated” and raised concerns that responsible customers who walked friends to the nearby taxi rank or stepped out to make a phone call would be refused re-entry.

But council licensing and trading standards manager Jim Whitelegg said that the entry restriction would not apply to “existing bone fide” customers.

The licensing panel hearing is due to start at 10am on Thursday (31 August). It is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.