Durham student pepper-sprayed by pigs in pizza fight
‘It was the worst hour of my life’
A pair of pissed-up pizza lovers spent the night in a cell after they were caught punching each other over a takeaway.
The police intervened in the Durham students’ fight when a drunken scuffle over pizza turned into full-blown fisticuffs.
The boys were fighting in a car park over the food when three police cars parked up:
One of the men said: “I stood up and walked towards the police officers as a friendly offering, but it wasn’t taken that way.
“In the cold light of pizza-gate, they pepper sprayed me in the face.”
It began in Paddy’s. While one of the boys waited patiently on his 15″ Hawaiian he was taunted by his mate with mozzarella bites.
Sick of being mocked for his own empty hands, the hungry student kicked the pizza out his smug friend’s grasp.
Continuing the night, both parties left Paddy’s with their pizzas, one of which had been salvaged from the floor, and made their way to Old Elvet.
But it was far from over.
The teaser who had to mop up his munch from the floor of Paddy’s retaliated, sending the second pizza to the ground.
A punch-up followed and one of the guys’ brothers was pushed to the ground.
He said: “They were chasing each other round a bus when one of them lost his glasses under the vehicle.”
And then the police arrived: “There were three cars and an attack dog, but the recently blinded individual was extremely puzzled by the sounds of barking since he didn’t know what had hit him.”
Shockingly, they were then pepper-sprayed by the police.
His brother said: “They were both sobbing by this point, propped up against the bus, rendered sightless by pepper spray and lost glasses respectively.”
Each member was then escorted into a separate police vehicle and taken to the station where they were made to spend the night.
The pepper sprayed student said: “I wasn’t able to wash my face and I can honestly say I would have rather been beaten up.
“It was the worst hour of my life.”
In the morning the police interviewed the three guys and sent them home, resulting in one student missing his booked train to Bristol.
He said: “Looking back I can understand the actions the police took and can only be glad it didn’t escalate further.
“Next time I’ll know not to mess with another man’s pizza.”
A spokesperson for Durham Constabulary said: “An officer from the dog section was on routine patrol on 24 October when at around 1.30am he noticed a disturbance in Old Elvet in Durham, involving three young men fighting in the street.
“He got out of his vehicle and issued a warning to the group to stop. However, when he received no response he brought out his police dog from the vehicle and repeated his instruction.
“One of the men then ran at the officer and to protect himself he opted to use his pepper spray, rather than deploy the dog.
“When back-up arrived all three were arrested and taken into custody at Durham city police office.
“The use of the pepper spray has been recorded and a report sent to the professional standards department, which is the usual procedure for such incidents.
“After being interviewed it was agreed that rather than bring any criminal charges the most appropriate way to resolve the situation was for the three to apologise to each other and no further action was taken.”