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UK: Leeds footballers retrial

01 March 2001

The trial of the Leeds United football players, accused of assaulting Safraz Najeib in January 2000, was abandoned in March after an article about the case was published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper. The newspaper, which later issued an apology for causing the collapse of the trial, saw their editor, Colin Myler, resign a few days later. Footballers, Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate, and Woodgate's friends Paul Caveney and Neil Clifford will face a retrial, scheduled for 8 October at Hull Crown Court. The four defendants remain on police bail facing charges of grievous bodily harm with intent and affray for the attack on Safraz. The trial is estimated to have cost £8 million and was abandoned shortly before the jury was expected to reach a decision on the charges. Suresh Grover, of the National Civil Rights Movement and spokesman for the Najeib family, described the decision to abandon the trial as a blow for the family and added that the newspaper article was printed without their consent. He was optimistic about the outcome of the new trial, but was unable to comment further because of reporting restrictions (see Statewatch vol 10 nos 1 and 2).