Trial briefly adjourned for change of trousers

The trial of Lee Bowyer has been adjourned so he could change his trousers after he admitted he was not wearing any underpants.

Bowyer, 24, was asked by the defence to get changed into the trousers and shoes he claims he wore on the night of the alleged attack on Asian student Sarfraz Najeib.

The prosecution claims the shoes the footballer was shown wearing on a video had a large ornamental buckle on and were not the ones handed to police as evidence after the incident in January last year.

Jonathan Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough, Bowyer, of Leeds, 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, 20, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, suffered serious injuries including a broken leg and fractured cheekbone. Woodgate, Caveney and Clifford, with Michael Duberry, 24, of Leeds, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack.

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.

Mr de Silva took Bowyer through police interviews in which he had told officers that he had run down Boar Lane in pursuit of Woodgate and his friends but had fallen over and received a blow on the side of the face from an unknown attacker as he tried to get up.

He had told police: "It's just that I haven't done anything apart from take a whack so I can't understand why I am here."