EXCLUSIVE: A journalist covering the protests in Southport, England, following the killing of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event was brutally assaulted and robbed by demonstrators, and said police initially refused his request to be escorted to safety.
The Publica writer, Jack Hadfield, told Fox News Digital he was mobbed, had his phone charger stolen and was punched so hard during the protest on Tuesday that a piece of his tooth fell out of his mouth. The Publica said in a statement it abruptly ended its coverage of the protests to ensure Hadfield made it to safety.
“I am recovering well after the attack, if still being a bit shaken,” he told Fox News Digital. “It certainly has not deterred me from continuing to cover on the ground events, and I’m taking the broken tooth to be a battle scar!”
Hadfield said he arrived in Southport shortly before 5 p.m. on Tuesday and a short time later attended a vigil that was held in response to the killing of the three girls.
Axel Rudakubana, 17, was identified as the suspect in the stabbing deaths.
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After the vigil, Hadfield went to St Luke’s Road to cover a protest that was scheduled for 8 p.m., when the demonstration had already become violent, including police cars being burned and people throwing bricks at a mosque, he said.
Authorities set up two police lines around the mosque to separate the crowds, Hadfield said, noting that he moved back and forth between the groups to record more footage of the protest.
Hadfield said he was walking east down Hawkshead St. towards St Luke’s Rd. around 10:40 p.m. when an individual, who had overheard him talking to other people earlier in the protest, identified him as a journalist and yelled that he should be attacked. He said this prompted him to start moving faster and that he believes he was the only journalist who was still out when he was identified.
“I was set upon by one man, who proceeded to hit me repeatedly in the head, face and body,” Hadfield said. “I started running further down the road, coming to the crossroads of Hawkshead St. and St. Luke’s Road, where a far larger crowd of approximately a couple of hundred people or so were still gathered.”
“At that point, I was surrounded by 10–15 men, who I attempted to explain to that I wasn’t part of the mainstream media. They demanded that I delete images and videos off of my phone, which I did,” he said, pointing out that he was able to recover them later from his recently deleted folder.
He said calls ensued for his phone to be taken and someone attempted to grab it from him, but he resisted and managed to hang on to his device.
Hadfield was pushed to the ground and struck again, which knocked his glasses off his face. He said he was robbed of his phone charger, which was pulled out of a portable power bank in his backpack that it had been connected to.
After he grabbed his glasses and stood up, Hadfield said he “realized there was something in my mouth, and I spat a section of my tooth into my hand that I hadn’t realized had been chipped off in the attack.”
He then ran to the police line that he said was about 50-100 meters, or about 55-109 yards, down St. Luke’s Rd. He said he dropped the piece of his tooth during his sprint for the police line.
“When I was at the police line, the officers there were initially extremely unhelpful, telling me that not only they couldn’t help me, but that I couldn’t stay there,” Hadfield said. “Officers initially directed me west, which would have taken me back further into the areas of the protests, and said I couldn’t be escorted at all.”
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After staying for about 10 minutes, Hadfield was told that police lines continued further down St. Luke’s Road, so he made his way in that direction.
“The officers further away from the crowd were much more helpful,” he said. “I wasn’t able to get an ambulance, nor a taxi to the hospital, so I had to stay with the police for just over two hours, while a friend drove around 65 miles in the middle of the night to pick me up and safely escort me home.”
Police told Hadfield on Wednesday that a crime report had been filed over the incident, but he said he remains skeptical anything will come of it.
Hadfield opted to be treated where he lives in Manchester. A friend drove him to the Manchester Royal Infirmary’s Accident and Emergency Department. A doctor saw him at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday after waiting for about two and a half hours. Doctors determined he did not suffer a concussion or any other serious injuries.
He sustained bruising on his hands and face, a lump on his head and both of his lips were busted. He was also able to have his tooth fixed on Wednesday.
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