gerard cleared of bar attack the AA grumpy column

[pantoandy]

watch out grumpy,s about watch out grumpy,s about
yes its me again my FG chums back from me jollies.
i dont normally do football cannot stand the game 22 overpaid stroppy blokes that kick a ball around twice a week for more wages we could earn in a year .
anyway thats beside the point but hows this for a result are you surprised.

ENGLAND footballer Steven Gerrard was a free man today after he was cleared of unjustly attacking a man in a bar.

The Liverpool captain admitted hitting Marcus McGee, 34, in Southport last December and a jury at the city's Crown Court accepted his explanation that it was in self-defence.

The 29-year-old was the only one of seven defendants to be cleared over the "explosion of violence" at the Lounge Inn during which Mr McGee lost a tooth and suffered facial cuts.

The trial heard that Gerrard was at the Lounge Inn in Southport, Merseyside, on December 29 to celebrate Liverpool's 5-1 demolition of Newcastle United hours earlier.

The Reds' captain, who scored twice in the game, was enjoying a night out with a party of friends including Anfield legend Kenny Dalglish, 58.

CCTV footage from the bar showed Gerrard and his friends drinking beer, downing shots and dancing round while chanting football songs.

But trouble flared at around 2am when the father-of-two wanted to change the music on the CD player.

Prosecutor David Turner QC told the jury of seven women and five men that Gerrard lost his cool after Mr McGee refused his request to change the music.

He said the millionaire footballer stormed off in a huff and then confronted Mr McGee at the bar seven minutes later, talking to him for 23 seconds before swinging three upper-cut punches at him.

However, Gerrard's version of events differed. The footballer, who denied affray, told the jury yesterday that he was "shocked" by Mr McGee's attitude.

He said the businessman told him: "You are not putting no ********** music on in here". Gerrard said they argued for a few seconds before he walked away.

The footballer said that minutes later he decided to smooth things over, against the advice of his friends, because he did not want the row to ruin his night.

He told the court: "I asked Marcus what was the problem with the music machine and why he treated me like that.

"Very quickly he came off the bar stool and was in my face right by me."

He told his defence counsel, John Kelsey-Fry, that he hit out at Mr McGee in self-defence. He said: "I firmly believed Marcus came towards me to hit me."

Gerrard described raising his left arm to grab the back of Mr McGee's jumper.

He said: "I grabbed the back of his jumper as he moved forward to me. When I had hold of Marcus, I remember swinging my right hand two or three times."

He said the incident took about four or five seconds before he was "pushed and pulled" away from Mr McGee.

Gerrard apologised for what happened, telling the jury: "I am sorry about the whole incident."
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-of-bar-attack.

AAG
well what did you expect ?
liverpool,s not going to send one of its sons to jail over a little brawl are they ?
theres not a jury in liverpool that would convict gerard of assult even though it was clearly captured on cctv so the trial was a farce from begining to end.

if justice was seen to be done he would have been tried in nearby manchester
with a mancunian jury what would the verdict have been then ?

it seems that if you are a rich millionaire football player playing for one of the top clubs like liverpool you can get away with anything.

would you or i have walked away a free man if that had been our trial ?
it smacks of one law for them and one law for us and millionaire gerard can afford the best legal council so the verdict was a foregone conclusion before the trial started.

once again the image of football has been tarnished.
hope the judge and jury enjoy their season tickets courtesy of liverpool F.C .

[abbey]

Is there an ((echo)) in here?

[G#Gill]

Grumps, Abbey already put a thread up about this, earlier !

[oscar]

Originally Posted by abbey

Is there an ((echo)) in here?

You said that twice.