Men punched bride in the head in wedding bust up

Guests Lee Doyle, 37, and Gary Hutson, 46, attacked the newlyweds as they celebrated with family and friends at a luxury hotel.

The parties clashed in the early hours of the morning of August 10 last year, resulting in Glen and Georgina Evans having to spend their wedding night in a nearby Holiday Inn.

Doyle and Hutson denied affray but a jury today found them guilty of affray at St Albans Crown Court.

Prosecutor Gavin Pottinger told the court how the pair approached newly married Mr and Mrs Evans following their reception at Fanhams Hall Hotel, in Ware, Herts.

They asked the couple to leave, claiming the area was reserved for a separate wedding party.

But Mr Evans told the court that after he tried to “diffuse the situation”, both men punched him, leaving him with bruising to the head and ribs.

He said: “We had been put there by the hotel. I told him to speak to the hotel. He wasn’t taking any of that. He leaned over and punched me in the face.

“I tried to diffuse the situation.”

Mr Evans said Hutson also hit him then he was kicked and punched to the floor as more people joined in the attack.

The court heard how as he got up, he was punched again before his wife was also hit.

When asked by Mr Pottinger how drunk he was on a scale of 0 to 10, Mr Evans said, “5”.

He denied being angry and throwing a fist at Doyle, when quizzed in cross-examination by Mizan Abdulrouf.

In the witness box new bride Georgina Evans said the couple had been told: “You need to move out of this f**king bar. This is a private party.”

She added: “They seemed really intimidating. I thought ‘This isn’t going to end well.’

“We said they needed to check with the bar staff who had moved us. When Glen stood up, one said: ‘You think you are so hard’.”

Mrs Evans alleged her husband was hit by Doyle and then everything went out of control.

She said a bridesmaid from the other wedding party asked her why she was causing trouble and then she was hit to the side of the head.

“I went on honeymoon with my husband having a broken nose and me with bruising to my face,” she added.

Doyle of Houghton Regis, and Hutson, of Luton, will be sentenced on March 18.