Otley Run pub crawl crossbow attack raises route safety fear

People living near a popular pub crawl route have called for it to be recognised as an official event so that it can be made safer, after two women were injured in a crossbow attack.

The victims, aged 19 and 31, were hurt on the route of the Otley Run in Headingley, Leeds, on 26 April. Both have since been discharged from hospital.

At a meeting on Thursday night, politicians and residents called for stricter crowd control and suggested pubs could be asked to pay a fee towards extra policing.

Dale Ellis, who lives nearby, said about 4,000 people took part in the pub crawl each weekend and visitors’ behaviour was “progressively getting worse”.

The 19-stop pub crawl has been around for decades and regularly attracts thousands of revellers, often wearing fancy dress.

Last month, the three-mile route became the target of a violent attack in which two women were injured.

The key suspect, Owen Lawrence, 38, was later arrested and died in hospital of self-inflicted injuries.

While the Otley Run had already been the subject of regular discussion among residents, April’s attack brought safety issues as well as “easy access” to crossbows into sharp focus.

However, speaking to the BBC on Saturday, people on the pub crawl argued the current issue to debate was a rise in misogynistic views online.

A meeting held at St Michael Church in Headingley on Thursday was initially called to address community concerns, but was dominated by discussion of the pub crawl.

Insp Carl Robinson from West Yorkshire Police told the meeting one police officer and one police community support officer would be allocated to the Otley Run each weekend as a minimum, often with requests for more.

Ms Ellis, who attended the meeting, said she found those numbers “crazy”.

“We have about 4,000 people coming every weekend and we’ve been told that we have two police officers,” she said.

She said she was unable to have her nieces and nephews to stay because she “can’t explain to a nine-year-old why Batman is punching Spider-Man and shouting horrible things at him”.

“I think we are very, very lucky that something like what happened two weeks ago hasn’t happened before,” she said.

“I want people to have a lovely time and that’s not what we are trying to stop.”

But she said she wanted to “address the responsibility of the council, the police, the lack of resource and funding that we have to be able to police the situation better and make everyone safer”.

In the past, the Otley Run was mainly frequented by locals and students.

But it quickly grew in popularity, with a huge surge in visitors reported following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now people from all over the country come to take part and residents said they often had to deal with noise, litter and crowds blocking the pavements and their front doors.

Lesley Jeffries said she usually avoided picking up her grandchildren or going about her daily tasks on a Saturday.

“You just don’t want to be around it,” she said.

“Most of the people on the Otley Run are having fun but they don’t see you, they don’t see an old lady walking along with her shopping.

“I’ve had my shopping knocked out of my hand, not in malice but just because they are shouting at their mate up the road.”

Residents like Ms Jeffries and Ms Ellis said they hoped the Otley Run could be recognised as an event to better protect those taking part.

However, as it was not a recognised event, bringing in event laws to monitor it would be challenging, MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, Alex Sobel, told the meeting.

Sobel acknowledged the size of the Otley Run had “got out of hand”, adding: “We need to look at the laws we have and tightening them, bringing more control to the Otley Run.”

Sobel said one possibility would be to introduce a fee to be paid by the businesses and used to fund policing and support safety.

“What would be best is if the pubs themselves voluntarily started to pay into a fund, to show willing,” he said.

“There are 17 of them on the route, we know how much money, more or less, they make on a Saturday, it would be a very small amount of profit to contribute towards the policing of the event.”

Leeds councillor Jonathan Pryor agreed that venues needed to accept responsibility for keeping people safe.

“I think we want to be really clear that the incident that happened in Headingley a few weeks ago isn’t down to them at all, it’s down to that individual that did it,” he said.

“But at the same time we need to make sure the venues across the area are playing their part in keeping people, who come and do the Otley Run, safe.”