March 14, 2001

March 14, 2001 (Wednesday) from Yahoo!

Footballer 'enjoyed' vicious attack

Leeds United footballer Lee Bowyer enjoyed kicking and punching an Asian student until he lay unconscious on the ground, a court has heard.

The 24-year-old midfielder denies any part in the incident which is alleged to have taken place in January last year outside a Leeds nightclub.

But Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, accused Mr Bowyer of being "exhilarated" after the attack which left 20-year-old Sarfraz Najeib with serious injures including a broken leg and fractured cheekbone.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of Mr Bowyer hugging co-accused Neale Caveney after the attack on Mr Najeib, which the prosecution claims was "a victory embrace".

Mr Bowyer has continually maintained he was not in the area at the time of the attack and that he was misidentified on the video footage.

"That night the two of you had just emerged from the attack on the Asian, who you had left almost for dead," chief prosecutor Nicholas Campbell said in Hull Crown Court on Wednesday.

Bowyer replied: "I was not involved in any attack in Mill Hill."

"I am suggesting you were exhilarated by what had happened. You had enjoyed it and you were celebrating your victory," Campbell said.

Bowyer replied: "I have never been in Mill Hill, there was no victory to celebrate".

Bowyer said he had been embraced by one of fellow defendant and Leeds defender Jonathan Woodgate's friends outside a city centre pub after the alleged attack, but he said he didn't know why.

But he has been unable to explain how blood from the victim's brother, Shahzad, came to be found on his jacket.

Campbell suggested that Bowyer got the blood of Sarfraz's brother, Shazhad, on the sleeve of his designer leather jacket after he and another attacker decided to "sort him out".

Bowyer replied: "No".

The player said he had been misidentified "from the start" because his photograph had appeared in newspapers following his arrest a week after the incident.

Mr Campbell said: "You were part of the attack on the Asian student who you had left almost for dead.

"I am not saying that the others were not as exhilarated as the two of you.

"But you enjoyed it, Mr Bowyer."

'A pack of lies'

Earlier Mr Campbell accused the footballer of lying. "It's a pack of lies Mr Bowyer," he said.

"You have told lies repeatedly to the police, you have told further lies during your evidence in order to attempt to explain those lies," he said.

"No it's not a pack of lies Mr Campbell," the footballer replied. "I am not very clever. It's how I speak. What I have told you is what happened on the night and it might be jumbled up. I cannot help that, I am sorry. Mr Campbell, I am not very good with words. I made some mistakes in interview with words and how it's jumbled up and that. I am sorry."

Mr Bowyer told Hull Crown Court that injuries to his face and hand were caused when he fell over as he was leaving the Majestyk nightclub.

He said a mystery person gave him "a whack" on the head as he attempted to get up off the floor.

Giving evidence for a third day, Mr Bowyer admitted that he had "made mistakes" in police interviews and listening to evidence over the past 21 days had "jogged" his memory.

He explained differences in the statements he gave to police and his court evidence by saying that listening to the evidence had brought things back to him and helped jog his memory.

He told police that Woodgate had seen him fall after they both left a nightclub and had told him later it had looked "nasty".

Bowyer said he had not asked Woodgate who had "whacked" him, leaving him dazed on the night of January 11/12, 2000.

Campbell said he was not suggesting it was the player's "battle" but he had still got involved in the attack on Najeib in a street called Mill Hill in central Leeds.

Shown a photograph of white men chasing the Asians, Bowyer denied he was part of the group.

The prosecution allege that after a fracas outside the night club, Sarfraz Najeib and his friends were chased into a street called Mill Hill in central Leeds where Najeib, then 19, was knocked senseless.

Najeib spent eight days in hospital with a broken leg, nose and cheekbone. Bowyer and Woodgate could go to jail if they are found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm and affray. They deny the charges.

Bowyer, who joined Leeds United five years ago, told the court he didn't know the city centre well and had not been there for more than a year.

On Tuesday, Bowyer said he couldn't remember anything after he had been hit to the ground until he saw Woodgate and his friends coming out of Mill Hill.

Mr Bowyer, a former England under-21 international from Leeds, Mr Woodgate, Mr Caveney and Mr Clifford deny causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Najeib, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

They also deny affray.

Mr Woodgate, Mr Caveney and Mr Clifford, with Leeds United player Michael Duberry, 24, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack in January last year.

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