Pub Where Man Was Fatally Stabbed Cleared to Reopen

Suspension of Star and Scorpion's licence lifted


Star and Scorpion
. Picture: Google Streetview

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A West Ealing bar has been allowed stay open after a dad was stabbed to death at a “birthday party”. Wayne Phillips, 58, was at the Star and Scorpion bar on Uxbridge Road with his girlfriend when he died on 23 July.

The dad, from West Hampstead, was reportedly stabbed in the heart just before midnight and later died at the scene. At least 100 people attended the party.

The bars licence was suspended on 29 July, but Met Police and Ealing Council decided it could reopen at a previous hearing on 12 August – so long as further conditions were agreed at a later date. At a licensing meeting on 17 August, Ealing Council agreed the bar can stay open but amended its licence to include the condition that there is no use of the garden after 10pm on a weekday and after 11pm on weekends.

Giving evidence to Ealing Council, police officer Kerry Smart said the bar’s manager Seyed Mohammad Hosseiny Sanaye was ‘very blasé‘ about the stabbing. They wrote, “During my telephone call with Mr Sanaye he was initially very blasé about the incident … I asked if there was a search policy to which he said ‘no’.”

During the licensing hearing, Mr Sanaye’s lawyer pointed out that his comments may have been due to his poor English. When police checked CCTV footage from the night they discovered staff had “stood behind the bar watching on”. The Met added: “No attempts were made to provide a first aid kit or give first aid until the arrival of the emergency services.”

A police report from PC Smart added that the bar had allowed people to enter the party after 11.30pm, when it was not allowed to do so, and that only one bouncer had been hired by the private event. There were also people standing drinking in the street.

Ealing Council’s noise and nuisance team also called for the bar to be closed. Six residents had complained to the council about noise regularly coming from partygoers until 1.30am in the morning. The noise team had visited the bar on 25 July and asked staff and the hired DJ to turn the music down. But according to nearby residents, the music was turned back up minutes after the noise team left.

But the bar’s lawyer Duncan Craig explained the venue had been working with the police and its management had received new training since the attack. He said, “Let’s not forget this is a human tragedy where somebody is out on a Saturday night with their girlfriend, and it was met with an utterly tragic end that impacts so many lives.

“I ask you to bear in mind my client has had somebody murdered in his restaurant … I would hope his engagement with the process and his cooperation since is demonstrative of his attitude towards this compared to one comment made in imperfect English when he was under a great deal of stress.”

Met Police charged Timothy Simon, 58, of Ray Walk, Islington, with Mr Phillips’ murder two days after the attack. The 58-year-old appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on 26 July, where he entered no plea. A bail hearing took place at the Old Bailey on 28 July, and he will remain in custody until a plea hearing on 13 October.

Paying tribute to Mr Phillips in a YouTube video, one friend, known as Yammy B, said: “Fair to say he was probably my first ever school friend in West London. It is a tragic sad loss for all of us that knew him. Never a bad word seemed to be said about him his entire life. He leaves behind a beloved son. What a pleasure it must have been to have Wayne as a father.”

Jacob Phillips - Local Democracy Reporter


August 18, 2022

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