A wealthy couple attending a horse riding club Christmas dinner attacked the landlords of an upmarket country pub and three of their staff after being told they couldn’t have another drink, a court heard.
Company director Nathan Sayer and wife Catharine had been seen throwing food and festive crackers during the gathering of around 20 fellow equestrians, magistrates were told.
They became ‘angry’ and launched the alleged assaults on landlords Thomas and Laura Faulkner at closing time after being told they couldn’t ‘get the beers in’ and were asked to leave.
Mrs Sayer, 53, is accused of injuring Mrs Faulkner by grabbing her shirt around the neck, swearing at her and beating her husband around the head as the couple were escorted by staff out of The New Inn at Heckfield in Hook, Hampshire.
During the disturbance Mr Sayer, 49, who runs a sales consultancy company, allegedly racially abused an employee he mistakenly thought was Muslim – but who just had a deep tan from a recent holiday to Australia.
The couple – who live in a house worth more than £800,000 just a mile from the pub – are both facing charges of racially or religiously aggravated harassment and assault, which they deny, claiming self defence.
The family-run rural inn is a Grade II listed building, and was once visited by world champion boxer Muhammad Ali in 1977.
Basingstoke Magistrates Court heard the alleged incident took place on December 9 2023.
Company director Nathan Sayer and wife Catharine had been seen throwing food and festive crackers during the gathering
The couple became ‘angry’ and launched the alleged assaults on landlords Thomas and Laura Faulkner at closing time after being told they couldn’t ‘get the beers in’. Pictured: Catharine
Prosecutor Ryan Seneviratne told the court that the Sayers were with a large group of people from a horse riding club at the Wedgewood livery yard.
‘Mr and Mrs Sayer seem to be part of a group of more than 20 people that have gone to the public house that evening as part of a riding club Christmas dinner.’
Later in the evening the couple were seen ‘throwing food, crackers, so on’, though this was ‘let go by and large by management’, the prosecutor said, adding: ‘Everyone else seems to be well behaved.’
At closing time the Sayers left the pub, but then came back inside the venue because he’d forgotten his scarf.
Mrs Faulkner told the court that Mrs Sayer went to the bar and ‘demanded’ another drink while she waited for her husband.
She ‘didn’t like the fact that there were two people sitting at the bar with half a drink’ – these were in fact two staff members.
Mr Sayer then appeared after retrieving the scarf, and said to Mrs Sayer ‘Get the beers in’.
‘They won’t serve me’, said Mrs Sayer, who then demanded to know who the people with drinks were.
Mrs Sayer, 53, is accused of injuring Mrs Faulkner (pictured) by grabbing her shirt around the neck and swearing at her
Mrs Sayer is also accused of beating Thomas Faulkner around the head as the couple were escorted by staff
The court heard that Mr Sayer then told Mr Faulkner that the New Inn and another pub he owns were ‘dog shit’, causing Mrs Faulkner to tell the couple it was time for them to leave.
Mrs Faulkner, along with three employees of The New Inn – two female and one male – then ushered the couple out of the venue.
In the pub foyer, as tensions rose and the couple became ‘really angry’ according to Mr Faulkner, he started recording a video on his phone which was played to the court.
In it Mr Sayer is seen calling a male staff member ‘Mustafa’, ‘Sheikh Mohammed’ and asking if he had a piece of ham behind his head.
However, Mrs Faulkner said the employee just ‘had a good tan’ as he’d recently been to Australia.
While facing Mr Faulkner, Mr Sayer can be heard saying: ‘I didn’t leave a tip because you’re a little c***.’
Mrs Faulkner told the court that Mr Sayer then, while doing a false laugh, came very close to her face. At this point, her husband stopped filming and pushed the company director out of the pub, believing that his wife was in danger.
Mr Faulkner told the court: ‘I was scared that there was going to be some kind of violence towards Laura, and I would always protect my wife, or anybody for that matter.’
Mr and Mrs Sayer then allegedly attacked the pub staff with Mr Sayer pushing a female member of staff and Mrs Sayer pushing Mrs Faulkner’s polo shirt into her neck.
Mrs Faulkner said: ‘She had the polo shirt and was pulling it so tight’ adding that she called her a ‘fucking bitch’.
The altercation took place on December 9, 2023, at The New Inn at Heckfield in Hook, Hampshire
The pub co-owner can be heard in the video shouting ‘Can somebody get her off me?’
The court heard Mrs Faulkner’s skin was broken in this incident, and the scabs from this stayed on her neck for four to five days.
Separate CCTV footage from the pub that was shown to the court also shows Mrs Sayer beating Mr Faulkner in the head, which took a layer of skin off part of his forehead.
Footage shows Mr Faulkner getting Mr Sayer in a headlock after he attacked the female staff member, dragging him away from her.
The incident ended with the staff members all managing to get behind the door and close it, with the couple on the outside.
The CCTV shows the couple laughing with each other after this happened, which Mrs Faulkner saw as them congratulating each other on provoking the staff as they did.
Omurchadu Ghiassi, defending, suggested in court that the argument between the couple and staff was a mutual one, rather than the couple being aggressors in the interaction.
But Mr Seneviratne rejected this, saying of the couple’s actions: ‘The crown says that in no way, no shape and no form is this self defence.’
Mr Sayer denies charges of religiously aggravated threatening or abusive behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress, threatening or abusive behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress and one charge of assault by beating.
Mrs Sayer denies the charge of racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing and four counts of assault by beating relating to four staff members of The New Inn.
The trial adjourned and will continue next month.