Mask Rage Man Who Hit Victim in Head With Pole for Not Wearing a Face Mask is Jailed

A Norwich City youth football coach who hit a man in the head with a metal pole for not wearing a Covid mask has been jailed. The Mail has the story.

Conor Murphy was queuing for food at a McDonald’s in June 2021 when he became enraged by a group of four who weren’t wearing face coverings.

After becoming increasingly irate, the 29-year-old went back to his car where he found the metal pole, before returning to attack one of the men.

He has now been jailed for two years and eight months over the “disgusting” attack, having previously pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon. He has since left his coaching role with Norwich.

The fracas began when Murphy was waiting to order food at the fast food restaurant at Peterborough’s Haddon Services off the A1.

He spotted a group of four people – including a 15-year-old boy – and questioned one of them about why his female friend wasn’t wearing a mask.

However, she had had a heart bypass and was exempt from rules at the time which made face coverings indoors mandatory, a court heard.

The group got their food and went to sit down but on the way out, Murphy again asked why the woman wasn’t wearing a mask.

An altercation then broke out between the man and Murphy, who pushed and shoved each other. 

The football coach returned to his car and sat there for three minutes, before finding the pole behind his driver’s seat and returning to confront the group.

He smacked the unmasked man on the right side of the head before he fell to the ground, suffering a bad cut that needed gluing.

The victim’s partner intervened and Murphy hit her on the wrist too. Onlookers tried to restrain him, but he escaped and drove off.

He was arrested a few days later after handing himself in at Thorpe Wood Police Station.

By the ‘harmful speech’ logic, does this mean we can ban anyone from promoting mask mandates on social media on the grounds that doing so might inspire lunatics to commit violence against the bare-faced? Just a thought.

Worth reading in full.

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Jon Garvey
3 years ago

No, you’ve misunderstood the harmful speech logic. It’s anti-mask speech that would have justified this chap’s offence and his violence. How could he be expected to stand idly by if someone was spreading harmful disinformation?

Boomer Bloke
3 years ago

Let the punishment fit the crime. A classic example of why the cane should be brought back as a deterrent punishment. Or in this case a metal pole applied to the side of the head. With extreme prejudice.

JohnK
3 years ago

Congratulations to the Mail for publishing it. No shortage of spurious offences committed by loads more, against those who decided to be exempt from the whole charade (which they could do).

Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago

“However, she had had a heart bypass and was exempt from rules at the time which made face coverings indoors mandatory, a court heard.”

No, face nappies were never mandatory anywhere in the UK. You could exempt yourself, and no-one had the right or authority to even enquire.

Anyone even asking me just got ignored.

JohnK
3 years ago

Correct. I did exactly the same thing. Someone did try to enforce it in August 20, but they stepped back when I declared exemption (someone who was doing maintenance work on my car at the dealer’s workshop).

Roy Everett
3 years ago

I had only two actual confrontations. One was a waitress who wouldn’t serve me, out of doors, unless I put a mask on and supplied contact details. I walked out. The other was a supermarket cashier (named Karen, no, honestly) who muttered something about a mask, but decided to serve me, still muttering. I think the unprecedented situation were were in during Lockdown elicited a huge range of reactions, ranging from fervent anti-masketeers to extreme pole-swingers.

Paul B
3 years ago
Reply to  Roy Everett

I had a few and I hardly left the house to avoid confrontation.

GP, GP’s receptionist and amazingly the asthma nurse were all particularly bad, considering I was there for unknown breathing issues.

Oh and my nutcase dentist in his hazmat suit. I fully expect them to still pick a fight this coming May lol.

Freddy Boy
3 years ago

Project fear & paranoia claims another victim !

huxleypiggles
3 years ago

A Norwich City youth football coach …

…who decided to attack young teenagers roughly half his age. I’m not convinced this thug was in the right job. Anyway, all being well that’s his golden future ruined.

I trust the youngsters are OK.

sskinner
3 years ago

Accessories to this crime are those that deliberately made every effort to instil fear into the minds of an unsuspecting populace. The culprits are Spi-B and Susan Michie and those politicians that set these groups lose and anyone in media that produced manipulative adverts or this on BBC Radio 4 news @ 13:00 14th Sept. 2020
News reader: “The policing minister said we should report on others if we seem them breaking the rule of six.Would you ‘dob in’ next door.”
Random person: “If my next door neighbour I found out was a terrorist, then I would report them, because they are potentially a killer. Now covid 19 in my opinion is a killer, and therefore I think anybody who flouts the rules is basically the same as a terrorist walking down the road spraying a machine gun.”

sskinner
3 years ago
Reply to  sskinner

Perhaps now is the time to create adverts that depict people with mental health issues, or who have lost businesses, or with vaccine damage, or with ‘criminal’ records having broken the ‘rules’, and include hard hitting captions such as:
“Look him in the eyes and tell him that his broken mental health was not important”
“Look her in the eyes and tell her that not being with her dying father was worth it.”
“Look him in the eyes and tell him that his vaccine injured daughter who now can’t have children is saving the planet”
“Look her in the eyes and tell her that preventing her children from socializing while being masked for two years was for the greater good”
I’m sure there are many more.

Occams Pangolin Pie
3 years ago

Thug jailed for ABH GBH and possession of weapon. End of story.

Rachel Taylor
Rachel Taylor
3 years ago

I agree. I don’t believe it is really a masking topic. He was dissed and took violent action. Happens at closing time across the country.

Rachel Taylor
Rachel Taylor
3 years ago
Reply to  Rachel Taylor

Downvotes but no evidence. That looks like confirmation bias to me. I am as anti-lockdown as it is possible to be, but that means I look for evidence, not confirmation bias. If he had attacked them at the time, I might have thought it was an extreme overreaction. But he went outside and sat in the car, stewed on it, picked up a weapon and went it.

huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  Rachel Taylor

Thuggery, or bullying, or both.

huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  Rachel Taylor

Absolutely spot on. This wasn’t a masking issue this was about thuggery plain and simple.

D J
D J
3 years ago

I disagree. I had numerous confrontations with fearful , angry people who would never have dreamt of such behaviour without that fear being promoted by an evil government advised by psychologists and public health officials.
The formal complaints against me remain on my record at work. I knew and quoted the research. It didn’t matter.
People need to be angrier at what was done.

Rachel Taylor
Rachel Taylor
3 years ago
Reply to  D J

That doesn’t make this particular case an instance of that. That’s just confirmation bias. If he had been rude and confrontational, you would have said it was part of a widespread pattern. But to go and sit in a car and come back with a weapon sounds more like someone who felt humiliated by the previous confrontation.

Paramaniac
3 years ago

I deliberately walked AGAINST the arrows in supermarkets.
Beat that.

Judy Watson
Judy Watson
3 years ago
Reply to  Paramaniac

Me too when I was back in the UK. Also if there was an ‘in’ only door and an ‘out’ only door I went in the out and out the in. A pub I went into wanted my phone number – happy to give it said I – until they started to write it down and it was an overseas number and not correct anyway. Also i refused to ‘tap and pay’ I insisted on cash only. I happily ignored every diktat there was.

The upshot of all of this was that I made new friends who were like-minded.

ellie-em
3 years ago

What on earth is a covid mask?

ellie-em
3 years ago
Reply to  ellie-em

Found it:

5FC4123D-5D96-4BBF-B712-B3098A46E6CC.jpeg
RTSC
RTSC
3 years ago

I guess he just wanted to demonstrate that not wearing a face nappy really IS dangerous.

What a ridiculous issue to destroy your career over.

Simon MacPhisto
Simon MacPhisto
3 years ago

We’ve all come across loons like during the madness, albeit not often resulting in physical altercations. I do so hope he has a lovely time in the prison showers.