December 14, 2001 (Friday) from Yahoo!

Woodgate guilty, Bowyer cleared

HULL (Reuters) - Leeds United footballer Jonathan Woodgate has avoided a jail sentence after being found guilty of affray following a brutal attack on an Asian student in January 2000.

The 21-year-old was ordered to do 100 hours of community service. Team mate Lee Bowyer, 24, walked free from court after being found not guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent, the more serious charge, and affray.

Woodgate's friend Paul Clifford was sentenced to six years jail after being found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and affray.

The court was told Clifford had bitten Sarfraz Najeib in the cheek as he lay unconscious on the ground in Leeds city centre.

"It has been obvious to everyone that you have suffered through the currency of this trial and that is etched upon your face. It is right you are not over-confident and brash," the trial judge told Woodgate after sentencing him.

Another of Woodgate's friend, Neale Caveney, was found guilty of affray and also sentenced to 100 hours of community service. The four denied all the charges.

"These six months for each of you must have been traumatic. I have little doubt if you see a chase setting off at night, you will keep well away," the judge told Woodgate and Caveney.

Najeib, then 19, suffered a broken leg and a fractured cheek and nose after a gang of men attacked him. He stayed in hospital for eight days and his eyebrow had to be glued together.

Bowyer thanked Leeds officials and fans for supporting him during his two-year ordeal.

"I would like to thank everybody who stuck by me - I won't forget that," he told reporters outside the court.

A first trial of the four on the same charges was stopped in April after an interview in a Sunday newspaper. The second trial started on October 15.

Leeds United chairman Peter Ridsdale indicated before the first trial that any player found to have taken part in the attack would be sacked by the premier league club.

In the 1994/95 season France's Eric Cantona was banned for eight months by the English Football Association and fined 10,000 pounds for a "Kung Fu" attack on a Crystal Palace spectator who had been goading him.

A two-week jail sentence imposed on Cantona was changed to 120 hours of community service.

CAREERS BLIGHTED

Woodgate and Bowyer are two of the most promising players in England but their careers have been blighted by their involvement in the case.

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.

Woodgate, who aged visibly during the first trial, has started only one game for Leeds since that trial started in February.

Bowyer continued playing for Leeds during the first trial, even scoring the winning goal in a Champions League match against Anderlecht the day after it began on February 12, and had a superb season in 2000/2001.

He would almost certainly have played for England, and perhaps be heading for the 2002 World Cup finals, if England officials had not decided that both players would not be considered for selection until the trial was over.

NIGHT OUT

Clifford, a former amateur boxing champion, and Caveney came down from Woodgate's native north-east of England for a night out in Leeds on January 11.

They drank heavily, visited a lap-dancing club and then left a night club in central Leeds when another friend was thrown out for being drunk.

They came out at the same time as a group of Asian students including Najeib, now 21, and his elder brother Shahzad. A punch was thrown by one of the students and a gang chased the Asians down a street called Mill Hill where Najeib was cornered.

The court was told he was thrown against a plastic dustbin, and kicked and punched unconscious.

Woodgate told the court he had stood by during the attack because "I didn't want to get involved" after tripping over and twisting his ankle.

Bowyer said he had been attacked by an unknown assailant and had never entered Mill Hill.

The judge in the first trial, David Poole, said "spiteful group retaliation" not racism was the motive for the attack and the judge in the second trial also said there was no racial element to the attack.

The first trial was stopped in April as the jury was deliberating at the end of the trial when a Sunday newspaper published an interview with Najeib's father. Poole said the interview carried a "substantial risk of prejudice".

since 17/6/2001

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