Source: Daily_Mail
Liverpool delight as skipper Steven Gerrard found not guilty over affray charge
Liverpool have breathed a sigh of relief after Steven Gerrard was found not guilty of affray today.
The England star was cleared of unjustly attacking a man in a bar and was later applauded by fans outside the city's Crown Court.
The midfielder admitted hitting Marcus McGee, 34, in a Southport bar last December and a jury 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.
Gerrard, who was also greeted by shouts of 'come on Rocky' on his way out of court, admitted he was a relieved man.
'Can I just say how pleased I am with today's verdict,' he said.
'I'd like to put this case behind me. I'm really looking forward to the season ahead and concentrating on football.
'I'd like to say a big thank you to my legal team, my friends and family and to everyone at Liverpool Football Club for supporting me.'
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez admitted he was happy to hear the outcome of the high-profile case.
'We are really pleased. He is very important for us and he can now focus just on football,' said Benitez. 'We are all pleased at the club and over here at the training camp.
'We have been supporting him all the time and were just waiting for the decision. Now he can concentrate just on football and hopefully play at the same level as last year.'
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 f****** music on in here' and swore at him. 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.'
CCTV footage showed that Gerrard's friend, John Doran, actually struck the first blow.
Five of Gerrard's friends who accompanied him that night admitted affray.
They are Ian Smith, 19, of Hilary Avenue, John Doran, 29, of Woodlands Road, and Paul McGrattan, 31, of Linden Drive, all Huyton, and Accrington Stanley footballers Robert Grant, 19, of Enstone Avenue, Litherland, and Ian Dunbavin, 28, of Guildford Road, Southport. Another friend, John McGrattan, 34, of Rimmer Avenue, Huyton, admitted threatening behaviour.
Gerrard showed no emotion when the jury foreman delivered the not guilty verdict after 70 minutes of deliberation.
Judge Henry Globe told the footballer: 'The verdict is a credible verdict on the full facts of this case, and you walk away from this court with your reputation intact.'
Judge Globe said in his opening remarks to the footballer: 'Steven Gerrard, with hindsight you may agree that it was unwise of you to have approached Marcus McGee in an attempt to speak to him about your earlier trivial disagreement about the music centre.
'However, that is far from saying you were criminally responsible for violence that thereafter erupted. When that violence occurred the victim Marcus McGee and his partner Gina Lond, who was standing nearby, both thought you had started it.
'When the police arrested you and interviewed you they were relying on these accounts. You were telling them you believed you were the first person to deliver any blow. The CCTV evidence that was obtained demonstrates conclusively that you were all mistaken.
'You did not start the violence, it was started by the violent elbowing of Marcus McGee in the face by one of your friends John Doran.'
He continued: 'The victim's consequential actions of reeling backwards and then forwards and your actions in response to that movement forward has to be seen against that background.
'At all times you insisted that you only ever acted in what you believed was reasonable self-defence to what you understandably, albeit you accept mistakenly, believed was an attempted attack upon you by Marcus McGee.
'What at first sight to the casual observer may seem to have been a clear-cut case against you of unlawful violence, has been nowhere near as clear-cut upon careful analysis of the evidence.'
