THREE doormen at a Redditch nightclub have been cleared of seriously injuring a clubber after he was escorted out.

Terry Francis, aged 49, of Snowshill Close, Redditch; Kingsley Smith, aged 50, of St Judes Avenue, Studley and 25-year-old Qasim Mehmood, of Sillins Avenue, Redditch, all denied causing grievous bodily harm to Simon Stone, saying they were acting in self defence.

A jury at Worcester Crown Court was told Mr Stone was outside MooMoo's club at about 1.40am on April 7 last year after he had been asked to leave for smoking on the premises. He continued to stand outside the door and got in the way of other people looking to enter the club.

Francis told police Mr Stone, who is 6ft 5ins tall, had become abusive and aggressive and had punched him. He pushed Mr Stone away and he fell to the floor. He carried on being aggressive and kicked out at Smith.

Stephen Davies, prosecuting, said Mr Stone was punched and kicked by Francis and Smith and suffered a fractured cheekbone. Mehmood's only action was to drop onto Mr Stone with his knee. It was not clear exactly how the injury was caused.

All three said they were acting in defence of themselves or their colleagues as Mr Stone appeared to be very drunk. He refused to go away when asked and had been swearing at them, insulting them and making monkey gestures. The jury was shown CCTV footage of the incident.

The jury heard father-of-two Francis, an engineer, had been a part-time doorman for seven years and had worked all around the Redditch area. He said Mr Stone had hit him and he thought he represented a continuing threat.

Father-of-three Smith, a hydraulic maintenance engineer who also has two grandchildren, had been part-time door staff for 17 years and still worked for Bar Fever, the owners of MooMoo's.

He had been head doorman at the club. He said Mr Stone had threatened to kick his face in and burn his house down and had been making monkey gestures, which, he said, happened a lot.

Mehmood, a doorman since 2010, said he had dropped onto Mr Stone with his knee to distract him from being aggressive towards his colleagues.

All three handed in references testifying to their experience and skill as doormen.
The jury took under two hours to reach not guilty verdicts.