Yorkshire-based regional press publisher Danny Lockwood has been convicted of assault after allegedly headbutting a man who said his newspaper was “racist”.
The Wakefield Express reports that Liam Ellis began talking to the publisher of Dewsbury-based weekly The Press in a pub in April last year.
He told the court: “I thought the way that things were written could be seen as discriminatory.
“We discussed [it] for 10 or 15 minutes but it never became overheated or threatening.”
According to the report Lockwood left the pub first, Ellis then followed him outside and a confrontation then ensued.
Lockwood, 55, claimed he was acting in self defence. He will be sentenced later this month.
The Press had weekly circulation of just over 30,000 when it was last audited by ABC.
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