March 22, 2001

March 22, 2001 (Thursday) from

Duberry denies he returned to scene of attack on Asian

By Rebecca Harrison

HULL, England (Reuters) - Leeds United footballer Michael Duberry denied on Thursday he had returned to the scene of a vicious attack to check "if the coast was clear" for his team mate Jonathan Woodgate.

Duberry, on trial for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, told Hull Crown Court Woodgate said he had been in a fight with some Asians.

Duberry said he did not realise the seriousness of the incident until after he and Woodgate had returned to his house.

The defender said Woodgate had received a telephone call from team mate Michael Bridges during which Woodgate just listened and looked shocked as Bridges told him the victim, Sarfraz Najeib, was "half-dead".

The court had earlier been told that Bridges was on his way home with Lee Bowyer in a car driven by one of Bridges's friends when he made the call on a mobile.

Duberry said on Thursday he then thought "f...ing hell, it was a bit serious".

The 25-year-old said he left the room for a while but denied a suggestion by prosecutor Nicholas Campbell that he returned to the scene of the attack in Leeds city centre.

"Woodgate wanted a taxi, I called him a taxi. I never left my house when I got there," Duberry told the court.

Woodgate and his friends Paul Clifford and Neale Caveney wanted the taxi to return to their hotel in Leeds city centre which was not far from the scene of the attack.

Campbell said Duberry had driven back into Leeds while Woodgate and his friends were plotting a cover-up.

Woodgate, 21, team-mate Lee Bowyer, 24, and two other men are accused of battering Najeib unconscious in January 2000. They deny the charges and face jail if convicted.

Duberry said Woodgate and his friends earlier showed no emotion as they passed the scene of the attack.

"They weren't all hyped up, pumped up, they were just normal," Duberry said.

He said he "didn't think twice about giving them a lift".

The group talked about Duberry's in-car TV, video and playstation on the way back to his house, he said.

They did not act unusually when they passed the street where Najeib was battered unconscious, he added.

Duberry said that when the group arrived at his house he gave two of them a change of clothes because one of the others had vomited over them.

He denied suggestions by Campbell that the group concocted a "false reason" to explain the change of clothing which Campbell has said was smeared with blood.

The trial continues.

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