Roger Foster

Roger Foster died from a head injury after being involved in an altercation outside the Cat and Fiddle pub in Magdalen Street, Norwich on 22 May 1997.

Two men, including the landlord of the Cat and Fiddle pub, were tried for his murder but acquitted on the direction of the judge who said that there was insufficient evidence.

Roger Foster  received a fractured skull during the altercation when he was pushed over and was taken to hospital but died two days later.

At the trial it was said that Roger Foster had died after the landlord and the other man had evicted him from the pub. The court heard that the landlord and the other man had lawfully ejected Roger Foster and another man from the pub for smoking cannabis.

However, it was heard at the trial that Roger Foster had drink and drug problems and had suffered a catalogue of falls before the fatal accident.

The judge said that to convict the landlord and his friend that the jury would have to be sure that the fall was caused by an act of one or other of them in a joint enterprise.

Roger Foster was described as a quiet person who would never harm anyone. Eight weeks after his death his 63-year-old mother died from a heart attack.

Roger Foster had been married but had divorced 15 years earlier and had lived for a time in Gayton before moving to Norwich and then latterly to Magdalen Street, a short distance from the Cat and Fiddle pub.

It was said that music had played a big part in his life and that he had always had his guitar with him wherever he went.

Following the acquittal, the landlord said that the incident had put him off ejecting anybody again. He said, 'I won't ever get involved. I could never go through that again'. He had also said that it was not a time for celebration because a man had died. He said, 'You have to feel for the family because they have suffered a loss and they think he was murdered, but as far as I am concerned he wasn't'.