Updated: YORK cells were full to capacity on New Year’s Day as police dealt with hundreds of incidents of alcohol-fuelled violence and rowdy behaviour.

Between midnight and 7am on New Year’s Day, 338 incidents in York, Selby and across North Yorkshire were reported to the force control room.

By 2.30pm on Saturday the total had increased to 433. By contrast, 309 incidents were reported to North Yorkshire Police during the same period on Saturday, November 27.

In Knaresborough, two men were taken to hospital with serious wounds after being attacked with a two-foot long Samurai-type sword.

One of the victims, a 31-year-old man, was taken to Harrogate Hospital for emergency treatment after suffering a serious cut to his arm.

A second victim, a 21-year-old man, suffered a cut to his face and was taken to York Hospital. They both remain in a stable condition following surgery.

Police have appealed for witnesses to the incident, which happened at a house in Inman Walk at 12.30am on New Year’s Day.

A 31-year-old local man was arrested at the scene and was yesterday charged with two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was due to appear at Harrogate Magistrates Court today.

In York, a 43-year-old man suffered face and head injuries after he was assaulted with a bottle at an address in Nelson Street, at about 2.50am on Saturday.

A 33-year-old man was charged with Section 20 assault and remanded in custody to appear at York Magistrates Court today.

Meanwhile, a 34-year-old man is in a serious condition at York Hospital after suffering a head injury in an alleged assault in Hungate, York, at about 3.50am on Saturday.

A 30-year-old man was arrested in connection with the assault and was released on bail pending further inquiries.

Witnesses or anyone with information about the two York incidents are asked to phone Det Sgt Ash Khan on 0845 60 60 247.


Defendant drunk on courthouse steps

A POLICEMAN’S display of Christmas goodwill saved a defendant from a trip to the cells and an extra charge when he turned up drunk for a hearing at York Magistrates Court.

Noel James Corr, 53, was listed to make his first appearance on a shoplifting charge before the city’s justices, but when his case was called, his solicitor Sandra Keen revealed he would not be walking into the courtroom.

She said he had drunk so much before the hearing, he had ended up “lying almost comatose at the top of the courthouse steps”.

Court security staff called police, who could have arrested him on suspicion of being drunk in public.

But the officer who responded to the call phoned the Arc Light Centre, where Corr was living at the time, and took him back to the centre in the back of a police van.

Mrs Keen said: “It was extremely kind of the police to take him back to the Arc Light Centre instead of down to the police station.”

In his absence, magistrates adjourned the shoplifting case against Corr until Thursday. He has yet to enter a plea.