Licensee faces death threat

A death threat was hanging over the head of a Leeds licensee last week after she helped send a trouble-maker at her pub to jail.

Barbara Forest of the Lion & Lamb, a Pyramid tenancy in the Seacroft area of the city, was told she would die on November 5, following the release of the man her evidence helped convict.

It is not the first death threat she has received in 28 years in the trade, chiefly spent turning around trouble pubs, but she and the police were taking it especially seriously because, she said, "the man is dying of leukemia and he's got nothing to lose".

Ms Forest was planning to spend Friday defiantly at her pub in the company of a few close friends. "I shall probably stay up all night," she said. "But I definitely don't want to be alone."

She revealed she was under a death threat during a personal appearance following the premiere of a play written about her life in pubs, The Mayday by Sarah Weatherall.

It was staged at the Frog & Forget-Me-Not in Tooting, South London, as part of the Wandsworth Arts Festival and tells how Ms Forest survived a fire-bombing and assaults to turn the Lion & Lamb business around.

She has barred 156 people from the pub since November 2000, including 22 whole families, and worked closely with police and the local council to secure convictions for trouble-makers.

Death threats she has received at other pubs she has run have left her unmoved. "I just tell them to go ahead and kill me," she said. "Every time it happens I take out another life insurance policy so if they succeed my kids will be loaded."

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said the threats were being taken seriously and that Ms Forest would be protected.

• Look out for Barbara Forest's full story from The Publican soon.