This week 60 years ago: Man glassed outside Caledonian Road pub in race hate attack
Islington Gazette: June 14, 1957 - Credit: Archant
A man suffered racial abuse and was brutally beaten after pub customers took badly to his karaoke in a Caledonian Road pub.
Leo Charles, of Northdown Street, King’s Cross, started singing into a microphone in the Star and Garter pub. He was told to stop by one man, who called him a “darky”, but Mr Charles carried on.
When the song finished, Charles went outside the pub, but was followed by the men who had abused him and an accomplice.
He was tripped up and both men began hitting him. Another customer smashed a glass over his head and hit him with it as one of the suspects held him.
They only stopped when police arrived at the scene. The man with the glass ran away.
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Mr Charles has six cuts to his face and another on his chest, and had to have 12 stitches.
Bloodstained clothing and broken glass were used as exhibits at a Clerkenwell Magistrates’ Court hearing.
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Two men were charged with causing grievous bodily harm and were sent to the Old Bailey for a trial.
