10 April 2023 , 15:29
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Police raided a pub and seized offensive dolls after a couple were said to have refused to remove the display.
Six officers arrived at The White Hart Inn, in Grays, Essex, on Tuesday, April 4 after reports of hate crime at the property.
The pub, which claims to "pride ourselves on welcoming everybody", has long displayed a collection of 15 dolls after allegedly receiving them as gifts from customers over the years.
Golly dolls have long been accepted as deeply offensive to Black communities but one of the owners has reportedly vowed to reinstate them as soon as they get them back.
Benice Ryley, who runs the pub with her 64-year-old husband Chris, was said to have been quizzed by officers following an anonymous complaint about the pub.
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Chris and Benice Ryley (Benice Ryley / SWNS)CCTV shows six officers walking into the bar and questioning Ms Ryley at a table.
One officer inspects the bar before gathering the dolls and placing them into a clear evidence bag.
The couple have run the White Hart Inn for the past 17 years after taking over when the pub had become run down.
Speaking to Thurrock Nub News, Ms Ryley said: "Apparently a visitor to the pub had been quite upset about them and made a complaint.
"Chris is away abroad and will be until the middle of May.
"Police said as he is the licensee they need to interview him and they have taken the dolls away in the interim."
The dolls on display at the pub (Benice Ryley / SWNS)The raid comes after the couple refused to remove the dolls after the local authority received a complaint in 2018.
The woman added: "I don't understand why we have to go through all this again.
"We have the police taking away information that is literally the history of this country. And why?
"We are quite happy to call them dolls, not golliwogs, but even the officer who wrote down the inventory as he was taking them away described the larger one as a golliwog and the others as golly dolls.
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"So even the police don't know what to call them.
Police responded to allegations of a hate crime (Benice Ryley / SWNS)"I understand that some people may not like them and they are entitled to that view, but they don't have to come into the pub.
"As far as we are aware we are not breaking any laws by displaying them, and that was proved last time when we were investigated.
"If we were not breaking the law then, why are we breaking the law now?
"It took six officers to come and remove a shelf full of dollies. What a waste of taxpayers' money.
"When the police officers came, I pointed to the dolls and said 'they haven't done anything.'
Police officers raided a pub to remove the offensive dolls the owners had refused to take down (Benice Ryley / SWNS)"The gollies all went quietly - none of them resisted arrest at all.
"I think the racist people are the ones who complain - it's their problem, not us.
"I have so many different cultures come in here, we are definitely not racist. We do many Indian weddings, for example."
Ms Ryley is reportedly demanding the dolls are immediately returned and has vowed to put them back behind the bar.
She fumed: "It is unreal - we haven't broken the law and there is no legal stuff that says I can't display them. It's just silly."
The pub faced some backlash online, with some people commenting on their Facebook posts, including one person saying "I hope she's into racism" under the pub's advertisement of a singer performing at the venue.
The police officers removing the dolls (Benice Ryley / SWNS)A spokesperson for Essex Police said: "We are investigating an allegation of hate crime in Grays reported to us on 24 February.
"On Tuesday, 4 April, we attended a location off Argent Street, Grays, and seized several items in connection with our investigation."
The force was reportedly criticised by the Home Secretary for their approach and told Essex Police that their focus should be catching real criminals instead of seizing dolls.
A Home Office source told the Daily Mail: "The Home Secretary's views have now been made very plain to Essex Police so they're under no illusions.
"Police forces should not be getting involved in this kind of nonsense. It's about tackling anti-social behaviour, stopping violence against women and girls, attending burglaries and catching criminals – not seizing dolls."