Haydar Ulus
A Turkish-speaking councillor has been found not guilty of assault following a five-day trial at Wood Green Crown Court.
By Michael Daventry
Haydar Ulus, 36, of Enstone Road, Brimsdown, had been accused of telling “a pack of lies” in his account of a fistfight between him and another man, Hasan Boran, at a North London warehouse 16 months ago.
But a jury of eight men and four women thought otherwise, pronouncing him not guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Mr Ulus’s cousin, Hatun Fırat, was also acquitted on the same charge.
His friends and relatives in the courtroom’s public gallery burst into applause as the verdict was delivered by the jury on Friday afternoon.
It brings to an end a legal battle that has dominated much of Mr Ulus’s first year as a councillor for Haselbury, in Enfield.
REPEATED PUNCHES
The trial centred on an incident at a North London cash & carry on 20 February 2014.
The court heard Mr Ulus arrived at the facility on Brantwood Road after receiving a phone call from his cousin telling him she had been insulted by staff there.
Dramatic CCTV footage used by the prosecution during the trial showed Mr Ulus striding towards Mr Boran man in the warehouse and punching him repeatedly. Mr Boran is shown punching back and pushing Mr Ulus to the ground during the scuffle.
At one stage Mr Ulus is seen to grab a shovel and attempt to advance towards Mr Boran, but drops it as other warehouse employees intervene.
The footage, which was played to the jury during the trial, showed Mr Boran take refuge in an office where he is joined after a few minutes by Mr Ulus.
Following a few seconds of animated conversation in which Ms Fırat also becomes involved, Mr Ulus is seen to deliver a series of punches that connect to Mr Boran’s shoulder. The scuffle then moves off the CCTV camera’s field of vision.
‘SELF-DEFENCE’
During the trial Mr Ulus said he had acted in self-defence because he had spotted a “shiny object” in Mr Boran’s hand which could either have been a fork or a knife. Testifying on the stand, Mr Ulus told the jury he sustained injuries to his forehead and lip, possibly caused by a fork.
He said: “I felt shocked and confused. It was the first time I had a fork in my forehead. At that moment I felt scared.”
Asked by his defence counsel, Keir Monteith QC, whether he had expected any of this, Mr Ulus replied: “No. None whatsoever.”
Mr Boran sustained swelling and bruising under his left eye and left cheek after the incident and required treatment at Whipps Cross University Hospital, East London. He did not appear as a witness at the trial.
The prosecution had claimed the CCTV footage disproved Mr Ulus’s earlier statement to the police in which he claimed he had removed a fork from Mr Boran’s hand.
‘GOOD CHARACTER’
“I suggest to you that what we see on that footage shows you were the aggressor and what you’ve told the jury today is completely at odds with that statement,” said crown prosecutor Mr Hunt.
Summing up, he continued: “What he’s done is tell a pack of lies to the police in the hope it will throw them off the scent. Once he saw the CCTV footage he realised he had to make up another pack of lies.”
But Keir Monteith QC, defending, emphasised Mr Ulus’s role as a leading member of the Turkish and Kurdish communities. He also read out a character reference from Joan Ryan, the Labour member of parliament for Enfield North.
Mr Ulus had been suspended by the Labour Party last year after he was charged by police. Now that he has been acquitted, the Labour whip on Enfield Council is expected to be returned to him in the coming days.
