Sol Campbell Chanting @ Pompey

[Dirk Gently]

Youwon't have seen this in the media as it's not deemed to be newsworthy, but the pair who were previously found guilty of homophobic abuse at Portsmouth when Spurs were visiting have been cleared at a re-trial. Their story is here :

9 months to the day, the CCTV images of 16 Spurs supporters were distributed by the police to all national media, and these images were placed in all papers, and on front page of Crimestoppers next to the likes of murderers and drug dealers.

For the first time in the 9 months since I woke up in a hotel in Germany and saw my face and that of my 13 year old son on the TV screen we can now hold our heads up high, having been proved innocent of all charges.

I cannot go into full detail, as we will be bringing civil acton (certainly on behalf of Lewis, as I can get all costs covered under Legal Aid) against the police / CPS for the damages their total negligence and lack of due care caused.

In December 11 of the 16 people identifed themselves to the police (including a 13 and 2 15 year old boys), and were all charged with engaging in racist or indecent chanting.

In February 4 of these people pleaded guilty the other 7 not guilty. The difference is the 4 were singing the Sol Sol song which certainly is indecent. The other 7 were singing songs such as "We've got Ledley at the back".

These 7 people were then banned by Tottenham under the premise that we had been arrested and that contravened the terms of our season ticket (the fact that we had not been found guilty was irrelevant).

Early May all 7 people were offered cautions, as they had not been singing indecent songs, 5 took what I would call the easy route out and accepted the caution, I decided to uphold my principles and decided I have done nothing wrong so why should me and my son admit any form of guilt (which in effect is what a caution does). The police then offered to drop all charges against me if I would get my son to accept a reprimand (they were obviously scared of future repercussions by my son) I rejected this out of principal as well.

Middle of May, the 2 of us went to trial at Portsmouth Magistrates Court and despite there being no evidence to support the charge brought against us we were found guilty basically by association of singing indecent songs, i.e. we can prove bad songs were sung, we can prove you were at the ground, therefore we assume you were singing these songs.

My legal counsel advised me afterwards that this was always going to be the case, it was purely a show trial, in front of national media (invited by the Police). We were given a 3 year Football Banning Order.

Yesterday we had a full re-trial at Portsmouth Crown Court in front of the most senior judge in Hampshire, but I was quite surprised no media was present. The prosecution showed their evidence, to which the judge said "Is that it". We asked for immediate dismissal of the case (before we even had the chance to put our defence case) and after 2 minutes of deliberation the judge that came back and said, "Not guilty, no case to answer and that is totally unanimous of us all and you can tell by the time it it took it was not a hard decision". The judge then ripped into the CPS that this had been brought into his courtroom, and even been tried in the first case.

All costs have been awarded to me, football banning orders lifted etc.

I have been in touch with the club and expect to hear early next week that the season tickets will be returned.

I would like to thank my family, friends, fellow supporters who have supported me in this, and also the Tottenham Trust who gave some invaluable advise and have been in contact with Spurs during the whole scenario.

I am writing this with a sore head (as you can imagine I celebrated hard last night) and with a big on my face. I will be going into Tottenham for a few (or maybe more than a few) drinks today, as I am now allowed back into the borough of Harringey on matchdays, although I do not have ticket for match.

Thanks for the support
Ian Trow

[TheMaraudingDog]

I still don't know which line was racist or homophobic in that chant.

Glad the 2 guys got off.

[Row Z Royal]

Trows, eh?

[TFF]

Cheers Dirk.

[Ian Royal]

Thanks for posting Dirk.

[handbags_harris]

Just one of the many reasons why the media can do one basically. Quite happy to smear and stain characters, but when proven wrong they have no balls whatsoever and are nowhere to be seen. They perceive themselves to be bastions of morality and decency, when in fact they are a bunch of gutless arseholes.

Hampshire Police appear to be acting like a bunch of c*nts as well within that article, offering the guys a caution (admit your guilt and we'll go away), and then drop all charges in exchange for giving the son a reprimand? Bunch of clowns. Dirk, am I right in saying Hampshire Police are one of the worst forces when it comes to football policing?

Based on that article and the fact the judge threw the case out within two minutes, glad they got off.

[Big Foot]

Hampshire police are one of those forces I've got a lovely s.27 sheet from

[Magnus]

2 things surprise me about this story - nothing to do with the media or polices behaviour, sadly this is all too typical these days (as the country is going to the dogs, I blame the government etc)

1. He actually wants to go back to a football match after his treatment
2. He's celebrating his victory in court by going for a drink in Tottenham. Whatever his views on the football team it's still a nasty area of London and a dire place to go for a pint.

[willz_royal]

Trows, eh?

vvankers the lot of them

[Maguire]

My experiences with the law taught me a couple of lessons that are borne out in this story, the main one being that to get justice as the accused you often have to have the balls to take a chance and stick your neck out.

A caution still means an admission of guilt and a criminal record, it's just an easy way out they give you to avoid court. Takes a bit of nerve to turn them down and take the court appearance anyway.

Shit's wrong.

[Arnie_Pie]

Fair play to him for standing up for himself. Could have taken the easy way out but said oxf*rd you to the Police.

[Dirk Gently]

Fair play to him for standing up for himself. Could have taken the easy way out but said oxf*rd you to the Police.

The majority of people do just accept the caution, sadly.

[ZacNaloen]

I wouldn't want the criminal record, but I haven't the money to pay for a lawyer, or at least percieve myself not to.

[Dirk Gently]

http://www.fsf.org.uk/fan-in-trouble.php

The FSF has been giving advice to football fans for years and can offer you assistance and support in case you need it.
.....

RFB Legal can represent supporters throught England and Wales, securing a barrister local to the case. Any fees charged are also capped so you know from the outset what the maximum charges would be. The FSF's Amanda Jacks acts as liaison between the FSF and RFB Legal - email amanda.jacks@fsf.org.uk or call 08702 777777 for further information.

Others you may want to try include:

Tuckers (London-Birmingham-Manchester) worked with the FSF on cases related to Section 27 and can be called on 0845 307 0004 or info@tuckerssolicitors.com.
Whitelock and Storr (Central London). John Howey, a partner in the Central London firm can be contacted on 0207 242 8612 or 07766 407408 (emergency 24 hour number). Alternatively email John here.
Should you contact one of the above solicitors, we would also like to hear your story.

If you want to anonymously report an incident at a match, please contact the FSF and we'll do our best to help.

[Dirk Gently]

I'll just leave this here a it's on asimilar theme - from this week's Private Eye

Flog On The Tyne

Last month Knacker of Northumbria put out a news release to touch the heart of every animal lover. It showed a forlorn-looking police dog, Cleo, claiming she was one of four dogs "kicked, punched to the ground and stamped on" by rampaging Sunderland football thugs.

According to the police statement, reported in the local press, fans on their way home from a pre-season friendly in Edinburgh against Hearts arrived at Newcastle station "intent on violence" and lashed out at both police and dogs. Although "shocked, battered and bruised," luckily none of the dogs was seriously injured, said the statement.

But is Northumbria presiding over its own G20-style policing disaster? For the same lack of serious injury cannot be said of at least four Sunderland fans who were hospitalised or needed emergency treatment, three with severe head wounds apparently caused by being beaten with batons, and a fourth with a dog bite wound to his stomach. One of those with a head wound was also bitten.

Accounts by fans contrast starkly to those of the police and suggest there were delays in getting medical treatment to those with head wounds. One supporter said that despite telling officers he had experience as a Territorial Army medic, he was prevented from giving assistance to one man. Phone video evidence shows the man lying in a pool of blood.

Last week, following freedom of information requests, Northumbria was forced to admit the extent of the injuries to police and dogs. Er, none... except for two dogs, with "tenderness on their bodies" which had not required a trip to the vet. And did the severe injuries to the fans trigger an investigation by the Independent Police Compliants Commission? It seems not. The police had told the IPCC that they had intelligence that a core of Sunderland soccer thugs on the train was behind a pre-arranged fight with Newcastle supporters, and that officers were there to escort the fans to the Metro and keep the factions apart. The police also published two clips of video evidence, one showing fans shouting and jeering at the cordon of police surrounding them; and a second showing some men entering a subway, one of whom appears to be carrying a stick.

But a week after the incident, commissioner for the North and East, Gary Garland, announced that after assessing video footage from CCTV at the station, the underground and from police hand-held cameras, it was "conclusive" that officers "were subjected to a high level of violence." Their use of force was "justifiable" and the IPCC did not need to play any role in investigating the affair, he said. But in reaching this decision, the Football Supporters Federation (no friend of thugs who use the sport as an excuse for violence), which has taken up the case, say that the IPCC had not considered any evidence from or interviewed any of the fans at the station.

Their evidence and clips of video footage are now being collated by the FSF, which has taken the unusual step of lodging formal complaints against the IPCC and calling on Mr Garland to resign for prejudging the case ahead of a proper investigation, which Northumbria police is now conducting into... itself. As the FSF points out, this doesn't inspire confidence.

Northumbria is also carrying out a criminal investigation into the trouble.

Statements from a number of fans suggest that, contrary to police assertions that they were heading to Newcastle bent on trougle, the fans had in fact waited an extra half-hour for a non-scheduled football special train that was supposed to take them directly to Sunderland. For some unknown reason, it terminated in Newcastle. They point out that any fans planning trouble would have caught an earlier train that was scheduled to stop in Newcastle.

They further claim that they were kept waiting for about 20 minutes and then corralled off the train, and that police were pushing fans forward on to police at the front who were blocking their exit. This caused a crush and some fans started to protest and swear at the police. One teacher described how a teenage Sunderland fan was pushed on to the police cordon and a dog git him on the stomach. He said chaos ensued as fans tried to grab the teenager back. It was suggested that if any of the dogs were hit or kicked, it was in an attempt to get them off supporters.

Dr Malcolm Clarke, chair of the FSF, said the case raised a number of issues that the IPCC or an independent force should investigate. The FSF has requested that all video footage be made available.

Knacker, meanwhile, has made 31 arrests on suspicion of causing violent disorder, with all fans bailed. Other than one man charged with being drunk and disorderly, no other chage has so far been brought. The IPCC told the Eye it was happy with its decision based on the evidence it had available to it at the time. Watch this space...

[Focher]

I am writing this with a sore head (as you can imagine I celebrated hard last night) and with a big on my face.