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Legia_Manchester
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As serious as the matter is... this was actually pretty funny...
Bowyer: 'That's not me' on CCTV
By Ashley Broadley and Peter Beal, PA News
Soccer star Lee Bowyer denied that he was a figure in a black leather Carlos*et captured on
video film chasing down a city centre street shortly before an Asian student was brutally
attacked.
The Leeds United midfielder said after being shown still photographs taken from the film
during his cross-examination at Hull Crown Court: 'That person is not me.'
Bowyer claimed that he had run down Boar Lane in Leeds in January last year on the
night Sarfraz Najeib, 20, was attacked in nearby Mill Hill.
But he said he had not been part of any chase and he had fallen over and was hit on the
head by a mystery attacker as he tried to regain his feet.
Prosecuting counsel Nicholas Campbell, QC, told Bowyer on his second day in the
witness box: 'Your evidence in this court has been a combination of what you have heard
to be the evidence against you and what you have decided, with or without the assistance
of your co-defendants, to tell the court to explain that evidence.
'That's the truth, isn't it?'
Bowyer replied: 'That's not true.'
Bowyer, 24, was at the centre of a bizarre courtroom exchange after his counsel,
Desmond de Silva QC, told him that he wanted him to change into the black trousers and
shoes he claimed to have been wearing on the night of the attack.
Before asking him to change into the trousers, Mr de Silva asked Bowyer: 'Are you wearing
underpants?'
Bowyer smiled, appeared embarrassed and glanced to the back of the public gallery
before replying: 'No, I'm not, no.'
Mr de Silva then asked him to leave court to change into the trousers and shoes.
The prosecution has claimed that video film shot at the entrance to the Majestyk nightclub
showed that the shoes Bowyer was seen wearing were not the ones he later handed to
police investigating the attack.
The ones on video had a large ornamental buckle, the prosecution says.
But Bowyer said what was shown on the film was a patch of skin because he never wore
socks.
Bowyer re-entered court wearing the black trousers and black shoes he said he had been
wearing on the night of the incident.
He was asked by Mr de Silva to walk in front of the jury box at Hull Crown Court and up and
down a step to demonstrate how he would have been seen on video entering the Majestyk
nightclub on the video film.
The trial judge Mr Justice Poole left his chair to walk over and watch Bowyer's
demonstration, which he then had to repeat on the other side of the courtroom for
prosecuting counsel Nicholas Campbell QC.
There was then another short adjournment while Bowyer left court to change back into the
clothes he had been wearing earlier.
He then had to change again into the trousers and disputed shoes during the lunch
adjournment at the request of Mr Campbell, who said he wanted the footballer to keep
them on during the cross-examination.
Bowyer, of Leeds, England international Jonathan Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough, and
Neale Caveney and Paul Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily
harm with intent to Mr Najeib. They also deny affray.
Mr Najeib of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, suffered serious injuries including a broken leg
and fractured cheekbone in the attack.
Woodgate, Caveney and Clifford, with Leeds United defender Michael Duberry, 24, of
Leeds, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack.
Mr de Silva asked Bowyer: 'Were you, at any stage, involved in any confrontation with
Asians?'
Bowyer: 'No Asians or any sort of race. I was not involved in any trouble that evening.'
He agreed that he had refused to take part in an identification parade two weeks after the
incident and his solicitor had told police it would not be fair in view of the intense media
coverage that had followed the arrest of him and Woodgate.
Bowyer said he did not know how blood from the victim's brother Shahzad Najeib came to
be in two places on his black Prada leather Carlos*et.
Bowyer said: 'I can't believe I had his blood on my Carlos*et.
'I really don't know because I wasn't in Mill Hill so I didn't get it from there. No matter how
many times anyone asks me, I don't know. I have no idea.'
He was asked about video footage showing Caveney embracing Bowyer in Boar Lane
after the time of the incident and whether anything had been said.
Bowyer said: 'I can't really remember the occasion at all and that's the truth. If I hadn't seen
the CCTV (closed circuit television) I wouldn't know about it. I don't know why he did it.'
He accepted it was him shown in the hug because Caveney's blood have also been found
on his Carlos*et.
Mr Campbell asked: 'When was the last time you hugged another man?'
Bowyer said it would have been after a goal was scored in a football match.
He added: 'People come and greet me quite a lot. I had a taxi driver in Leeds last
weekend got out of his car and gave me a hug. It was exactly as the same the hug Mr
Caveney gave me.'
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.
Bowyer: 'That's not me' on CCTV
By Ashley Broadley and Peter Beal, PA News
Soccer star Lee Bowyer denied that he was a figure in a black leather Carlos*et captured on
video film chasing down a city centre street shortly before an Asian student was brutally
attacked.
The Leeds United midfielder said after being shown still photographs taken from the film
during his cross-examination at Hull Crown Court: 'That person is not me.'
Bowyer claimed that he had run down Boar Lane in Leeds in January last year on the
night Sarfraz Najeib, 20, was attacked in nearby Mill Hill.
But he said he had not been part of any chase and he had fallen over and was hit on the
head by a mystery attacker as he tried to regain his feet.
Prosecuting counsel Nicholas Campbell, QC, told Bowyer on his second day in the
witness box: 'Your evidence in this court has been a combination of what you have heard
to be the evidence against you and what you have decided, with or without the assistance
of your co-defendants, to tell the court to explain that evidence.
'That's the truth, isn't it?'
Bowyer replied: 'That's not true.'
Bowyer, 24, was at the centre of a bizarre courtroom exchange after his counsel,
Desmond de Silva QC, told him that he wanted him to change into the black trousers and
shoes he claimed to have been wearing on the night of the attack.
Before asking him to change into the trousers, Mr de Silva asked Bowyer: 'Are you wearing
underpants?'
Bowyer smiled, appeared embarrassed and glanced to the back of the public gallery
before replying: 'No, I'm not, no.'
Mr de Silva then asked him to leave court to change into the trousers and shoes.
The prosecution has claimed that video film shot at the entrance to the Majestyk nightclub
showed that the shoes Bowyer was seen wearing were not the ones he later handed to
police investigating the attack.
The ones on video had a large ornamental buckle, the prosecution says.
But Bowyer said what was shown on the film was a patch of skin because he never wore
socks.
Bowyer re-entered court wearing the black trousers and black shoes he said he had been
wearing on the night of the incident.
He was asked by Mr de Silva to walk in front of the jury box at Hull Crown Court and up and
down a step to demonstrate how he would have been seen on video entering the Majestyk
nightclub on the video film.
The trial judge Mr Justice Poole left his chair to walk over and watch Bowyer's
demonstration, which he then had to repeat on the other side of the courtroom for
prosecuting counsel Nicholas Campbell QC.
There was then another short adjournment while Bowyer left court to change back into the
clothes he had been wearing earlier.
He then had to change again into the trousers and disputed shoes during the lunch
adjournment at the request of Mr Campbell, who said he wanted the footballer to keep
them on during the cross-examination.
Bowyer, of Leeds, England international Jonathan Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough, and
Neale Caveney and Paul Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily
harm with intent to Mr Najeib. They also deny affray.
Mr Najeib of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, suffered serious injuries including a broken leg
and fractured cheekbone in the attack.
Woodgate, Caveney and Clifford, with Leeds United defender Michael Duberry, 24, of
Leeds, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack.
Mr de Silva asked Bowyer: 'Were you, at any stage, involved in any confrontation with
Asians?'
Bowyer: 'No Asians or any sort of race. I was not involved in any trouble that evening.'
He agreed that he had refused to take part in an identification parade two weeks after the
incident and his solicitor had told police it would not be fair in view of the intense media
coverage that had followed the arrest of him and Woodgate.
Bowyer said he did not know how blood from the victim's brother Shahzad Najeib came to
be in two places on his black Prada leather Carlos*et.
Bowyer said: 'I can't believe I had his blood on my Carlos*et.
'I really don't know because I wasn't in Mill Hill so I didn't get it from there. No matter how
many times anyone asks me, I don't know. I have no idea.'
He was asked about video footage showing Caveney embracing Bowyer in Boar Lane
after the time of the incident and whether anything had been said.
Bowyer said: 'I can't really remember the occasion at all and that's the truth. If I hadn't seen
the CCTV (closed circuit television) I wouldn't know about it. I don't know why he did it.'
He accepted it was him shown in the hug because Caveney's blood have also been found
on his Carlos*et.
Mr Campbell asked: 'When was the last time you hugged another man?'
Bowyer said it would have been after a goal was scored in a football match.
He added: 'People come and greet me quite a lot. I had a taxi driver in Leeds last
weekend got out of his car and gave me a hug. It was exactly as the same the hug Mr
Caveney gave me.'
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.
