December 5, 2001 (Wednesday) from Yahoo!
"Lies told" in footballers' trial
HULL
(Reuters) - The judge in the trial of two Leeds United players accused of
beating a student unconscious has told the jury that lies have been told.
At the start of his summing-up on Wednesday, Justice Henriques said the outcome of the trial was of "great concern to both the defendants and the community" and told the jury of seven women and five men they had to come to a decision "without fear or favour".
Leeds United team mates Lee Bowyer, 24, and Jonathan Woodgate, 21, are accused with two of Woodgate's friends, Paul Clifford and Paul Caveney, of chasing Sarfraz Najeib from outside a Leeds nightclub into a side street and injuring him so badly that he spent eight days in hospital.
The four defendants have all denied affray and causing Sarfraz, now 21, grievous bodily harm with intent. Woodgate and Bowyer, two of the most promising players in English football, face jail if found guilty.
No matter what they might have previously heard about the case, the judge told the jury at Hull Crown Court they had to reach their verdicts on the evidence they had heard during the eight-week trial.
He said lies had been told in the case but the jury had to consider why the lies had been told.
If a defendant had lied about some aspect of his evidence, it was not an indication of guilt.
"If you think there may be a wholly innocent explanation in the lies, you should take no notice of them," he said.
"It is only if you are sure they did not lie for an innocent reason, that their lies can be regarded by you as lies counting towards their guilt."
"All are equal in the eyes of the law, be they footballers, welders or bricklayers," he said. "All are entitled to be tried according to the evidence."
A trial of the four earlier this year was stopped after an article in a Sunday newspaper.
The judge pointed out that no one had suggested during the second trial that the attack on Najeib in January 2000 was motivated by racial hatred. "There is not a word of evidence to that effect."
Centre back Woodgate played once for England under former coach Kevin Keegan while Bowyer was the country's most expensive teenager when Leeds paid 2.6 million pounds to sign him from Charlton Athletic in 1996.
Leeds said before the first trial that the premier league club would almost certainly sack any player found guilty of involvement in the assault.
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