Shocking incident left 18-year-old Joe Sharratt with bleed on the brain

The operations director of a security firm sacked by Manchester's Factory nightclub following an attack by door staff - which left an 18-year-old man with a bleed on the brain - has said that there was 'more to the incident'.

Speaking to Confidential, Gordon Lamb of Professional Security said: "I've been in the industry ten years and have over 350 staff in Manchester city centre at the weekends. 

"This is a rare thing and there was actually more to that incident. It kicked off inside where there were more of those lads who attacked some of my guys internally. What you see there is the end, where three of four door men are pissed off."

However, Lamb said that regardless of what happened inside the venue, he was "appalled by their behaviour" and that all eight members of the door staff involved had been sacked by the company.

Professional Security - which runs the doors of venues including the Ivy Spinningfields, Dirty Martini and Impossible - have since had their contract terminated by Factory, after a disturbing video appeared on social media showing door staff assaulting two men on Charles Street at around 3am on Sunday 2nd December.

One man, now known to be St Helens academy player Joe Sharratt, is shown motionless on the floor at the beginning of the clip, while another man suffers a barrage of punches by security staff, eventually falling to the floor, where the attack continues.

Greater Manchester Police have launched an investigation into the incident, while councillor Pat Karney told Confidential that the council had called an emergency licensing meeting - one which could see the venue closed. 

Joe Sharratt
St Helens academy player Joe Sharratt suffered a serious head injury

Responding to the Factory's decision to sack his company, Lamb said they had greatly improved security at the venue in the last four years.

"If I'm honest, when we took that venue on it was the number one problem venue in Manchester, we actually got the contract off the back of a similar incident," he said. "We've since taken that venue out of the top ten problem venues in Manchester, there have been no issues there for years, apart from the odd scuffle."

Lamb added that he was due to meet the SIA (Security Industry Authority) - the statutory organisation responsible for regulating the UK's private security industry - this week, and that he would support them in "revoking the badges of those who overstepped the mark".

Factory
Factory - reopened as a nightclub in 2010 - was once the HQ of Tony Wilson's Factory Records

Asked how he could guarantee that such an incident would not happen again, Lamb said: "Firstly, make sure those guys are not employed by me or employed by anybody else. 

"You have to use the situation to make an example," he added, "we'll terminate their contracts, report them to the SIA and I'll be seen by my current staff that when those situations do come around I won't defend it."

And does he consider punching somebody in the face to be a legitimate form of restraint? "The only way you can justify that behaviour is if you’re being struck yourself, and from looking at the video, they weren't being struck."

Anyone with information should contact police on 0161 856 3221, or anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting reference number 396