Soccer: evidence suggests Bowyer was not at attack

There is a "massive body of evidence" to show that Leeds United footballer Lee Bowyer was not at the scene of a savage attack on a student, his QC says.

There is a "massive body of evidence" to show that Leeds United footballer Lee Bowyer was not at the scene of a savage attack on a student, his QC said.

Desmond de Silva told the jury at Hull Crown Court that two witnesses, who were in Mill Hill when Sarfraz Najeib was beaten, had been shown to be "completely wrong".

The two bar workers had both said that Bowyer was at the scene - but gave a description of a different man, Mr de Silva said.

One of them also claimed that Bowyer was the man who had bitten Mr Najeib on the cheek in the attack. But a prosecution expert ruled that out and said it was another defendant, Paul Clifford, said Mr de Silva.

"We know now that was a terribly wrong identification," he said.

He said Bowyer has maintained from the beginning that he was never in Mill Hill on the night of the attack on the 20-year-old in January last year.

"You know he has maintained that constantly and you know he has maintained that before you," he said.

"I suppose someone could say cynically, 'He would say that, wouldn't he?' But it is not just him saying it.

"There is a massive body of prosecution evidence that suggests Lee Bowyer was not there at the time of confrontation and that he was not part of this chase that resulted to the injuries to Sarfraz Najeib in Mill Hill."

Bowyer, 24, of Leeds, Leeds United defender Jonathan Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough and Neale Caveney and Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Najeib of Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

They also deny affray.

Woodgate, Caveney and Clifford, with Leeds United player Michael Duberry, 25, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice following the attack.

The trial continues.