During the late evening of Easter Tuesday in the year 1890, a feud which had been developing for some time between the Sergeant and a Constable stationed at Cowbridge developed suddenly into a bitter fight, which resulted in the Sergeant losing an eye and the Constable receiving a sentence of 15 years imprisonment.

Sergeant 144 William Martin, a native of Brecon, had joined the force in 1867 at the age of 22 years, having previously been employed as a railway signalman. After service in Pontypridd and the Rhondda, he was promoted Sergeant at Tonypandy in 1877, and transferred to take charge of Cowbridge Station in February 1880, when Sergeant Jennings was moved from this town to become the first Inspector at Maesteg.

The Constable, PC 228 William Lewis from Pembrokeshire and at 5ft 10inches a good 2 inches taller than his Sergeant, was a single man living in at Cowbridge Police Station with 5 years service just completed.

At the hearing, the Sergeant testified that on the day before the incident (Easter Monday) he had posted PC Evans on duty at 2pm with orders to return to Station duties at 5pm, and to meet a conference at Nash at 8pm. Evans did not return and the Sergeant had to make the Nash conference himself. On his return to Cowbridge, he saw the Constable in the town and told him that he would be reported for being absent from the station without leave.

The next morning Evans was booked out on duty at 8.30am and returned to the station at 1pm when "he appeared to be in a sullen mood and scarcely spoke." The Sergeant then continued, "About 2pm I saw him preparing to go out and I told him I did not want him to go out, to which he replied that he was going out because he wanted to see PC Williams of Llanharan. He did go out and did not return until 4pm. This was quite contrary to the rules. When he returned he walked straight into the garden at the back of the Station, passed me by the door and did not say a word. He appeared terribly sullen. When my wife sent the girl to ask whether he wanted tea, he said no.

I left the Station about 6.15pm and returned at 6.30pm to look for the defendant. He was not at the Station where he ought to have been. I next saw him on duty by the Town Hall at about 9.30pm. I spoke to him and asked if anything particular had occurred. I saw him next shortly after 11pm and told him what I had heard about him, that instead of being at the Station he had been out in plain clothes, fishing, and that I would report him. He said that I could do as I liked. This was on the road near the Masons Arms.

I next saw him near the Eagle Stores shortly after midnight, on my way to the Station. A man named Roberts was with him. Roberts said to me, "You did all you could to harm me last Tuesday." When I asked him what he meant, he said, "You swore I was drunk and I lost the case when I had old Jenkins on in court." I told him not to bother me, or we would lock him up. At this point, Alderman Edward John opened his window to us and I said, "All right, Mr John, we are off," and walked with the defendant towards the Police Station, then after 50 yards, turned to walk the town again.

As we walked a conversation took place between us. The defendant started it by saying, "You don’t know your job, talking of locking up a man who had committed no offence." I told him I did not wish to lock him up, only to get rid of him. He then said, "You are not fit to be a Sergeant, I am a better man than you and know my duty a great deal better. I said, "All right, if you do," to which he said, "You are not fit to be a Sergeant, talking about locking people up." Then he accused me and said, "You are down on me too." I told him I was not, but his manner warned me that something was about to take place.

We were just opposite the Globe when I said to him, "Unless you drop it I shall go back to the Station," and the words had scarcely left my lips when he sprang on me like some infuriated brute. He tried to get me down, and I tried to free myself. I got away, but he flew at me again, tripped me and I fell in the channel at the side of the road, with him on top of me.

Directly we were on the ground he made for my eyes and I said, "Leave my eyes alone and prevented him two or three times by removing his hands, but he came back and had his thumb in my eye and had it out, and started on the other one. I shouted, "Roberts, Roberts," and I thought I was finished, but fortunately Mrs Trott came out and dragged him off me. I was then taken to Trott’s house and Mr Mellor removed my eye completely."

The Sergeant also testified that a prisoner had complained to him months earlier that PC Evans had attacked his eyes and injured them in a struggle.

Cross examination revealed that the defence would be that the Sergeant was drunk, that the injury to the eye had been caused by the handle of the door to the Eagle Stores as he fell, and not by the deliberate action of the defendant as described by the witness.

The Sergeant admitted that he had had one drink at the Cowbridge Arms and one at The Bear Hotel, but denied that he went into the Duke of Wellington, had a drink there and was assisted out of the house by the licensee who left him holding on to the door-post.

He also denied that he had to use his hands to steady himself when he left the Bear; that he staggered as he stood outside the Mason’s Arms; that he was under the influence of drink in the Horse and Groom; that he fell against the warehouse door and that he had not reported himself for drinking on duty. He testified that he had told the Superintendent about it.

To an objection to the examination as to drinking, the defending solicitor said he could bring half a dozen witnesses to prove the Sergeant was under the influence of drink that night, which the prosecution countered by saying that if this were allowed he would bring a dozen witnesses to prove otherwise.

For the prosecution, Mrs Trott and a Mrs Morgan testified that the whole struggle took place on the ground and that the parties had not fallen against the storehouse door. Mrs Trott, who had run to the scene to pull away the Constable, corroborated the Sergeant in that Evans was working his hands over Martin’s face. Sergeant John Davies of Bridgend (later to become Superintendent there) produced a statement made by the defendant which made no mention of the fall against the warehouse door of the Eagle Stores.

A navvy gave evidence of the incident referred to by Sergeant Martin and said that when being arrested by PC Evans for being drunk and disorderly they had a scuffle, and Evans got him down and put his hand in his right eye saying, "I have got you now." He shouted for help and two men separated them. His eye had been badly injured.

For the defence, Mark Roberts, a milk vendor of Eagle Lane, who had been present throughout the whole incident, gave evidence which conflicted to that of the Sergeant’s. He said that the Sergeant was drunk, that he had struck the first blow by hitting Evans in the chest and that the Sergeant and Evans had staggered to their feet during the struggle and fallen against the warehouse door locked together. Alderman John who saw the closing stages of the fight from his bedroom window, corroborated the collision with the door.

If it had not been for the positive evidence given by Dr Mellor, some difficulty may have been caused by the conflict of evidence as to whether or not Sergeant Martin’s face could have struck the warehouse door of the Eagle Stores and the damage to his eye been caused by striking the door knob. Dr Mellor stated that Sergeant Martin was not intoxicated, but Evans was under the influence of drink though he could walk and converse.

He described the injuries and said that they were such as to follow from an eye being pulled out. The injuries could have been caused by a man’s fingers or nails. Under cross-examination he added that the injuries to the eye could not have been caused by the knob of a door. If there had been such a blow from a door knob, he would have expected severe bruising to the external covering of the eye and injury to the bone structure forming the socket and to the eyeball, as well as pains in or near the eye at the time and for some time afterwards, whereas no such marks or injuries were present.

As a consequence PC Evans was found guilty and sent to prison for a 15-year period. It is not known whether an appeal made in the mid-1890s to the Home Secretary to release him was successful. Meanwhile Sergeant Martin transferred to Pontycymmer sporting a glass eye paid for by the police authority.