March 29, 2001

March 29, 2001 (Thursday) from Yahoo!

Court told Leeds' Woodgate blamed Bowyer

By Rebecca Harrison

HULL (Reuters) - Leeds United footballer Lee Bowyer could help England win the World Cup if he was found innocent of a serious assault charge, a court has heard.

In his closing speech Bowyer's lawyer Desmond de Silva said the midfielder had a dream of playing for his country at the highest level.

"Bowyer may have a glittering soccer future ahead of him in the great game of football, the great prizes of life in that game," De Silva said.

"One day the dream he spoke of, a dream of seeing England to victory by him scoring the winning goal in a future World Cup -- I hope it will come true.

"On the evidence you have heard I invite you to help him achieve that dream for himself and for England," De Silva said.

Earlier fellow team-mate Jonathan Woodgate implicated his team mate Lee Bowyer in a savage attack on an Asian student to shift blame away from himself and his friends, the court heard.

Bowyer's lawyer also told the jury that Tony Hackworth, who was earlier cleared of serious assault, had "thrown the police off the scent" by lying about what happened the night Sarfraz Najeib was battered unconscious.

Woodgate and two others, who with Bowyer are accused of grievous bodily harm with intent and affray, lied to police to put Bowyer "in the frame", Desmond de Silva said.

They all deny the charges.

Bowyer has said he did not chase Najeib from outside a nightclub and did not reach the scene of the attack, but was following Woodgate and his friends because he thought they were going to a lap-dancing club.

But Woodgate and his two friends, Paul Clifford and Neal Caveney from his home town of Middlesbrough in northeast England, all told police Bowyer joined in chasing Najeib and one even said he was in the lead.

"You do not need to be a Philadelphia lawyer to realise that people in trouble sometimes try to shift the blame on to others," de Silva told the jury in his closing speech after a six-week trial at Hull Crown Court.

"Whether Mr Woodgate owed a greater loyalty to his Middlesbrough friends than he owed to his team mate Lee Bowyer is a matter for you to decide."

De Silva said Bowyer neither chased nor attacked Najeib and blamed Hackworth instead.

Blood from the victim's brother, Shahzad, that was found on Bowyer's jacket could have been transferred from Hackworth, possibly when the two players drove home in the same car, de Silva said.

He added that Hackworth was "hefty" and fitted witnesses' descriptions of one of the attackers. He said Bowyer was "a weedy chap" and was not even there.

"The independent evidence shows that Lee Bowyer was not there", de Silva said. He added later: the one man who looks like he was there - Hackworth.

The reserve striker told "lie after lie" to police about what happened that night, but Bowyer's story that he fell over and was more interested in lap-dancing girls than violence was true, de Silva said.

"He seemed to have had lap-dancing on his mind, not affray. He seems to have had girls on his mind not GBH," de Silva said.

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