Woodgate freed over street attack - but handed £1m bill

Leeds United stars Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate walked free from court yesterday, almost two years after a vicious, drink-fuelled street attack on an Asian student.

Woodgate, 21, an England international, was sentenced to 100 hours' community service for affray - using or threatening serious violence - but was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm to Sarfraz Najeib, 21, who was punched, kicked and bitten after a nightclub row in Leeds. Bowyer, 24, was acquitted of both charges.

Leeds United defied angry criticism, including a furious denunciation by the victim's family, by announcing within two hours that both players would continue to form part of the Premiership team's squad.

But Woodgate faces expensive disciplinary action and the footballers are each more than £1m poorer after Mr Justice Henriques refused costs.

The judge brushed aside protests from Bowyer's QC with the comment that the player's statements to police had been "littered with lies".

Just one jail sentence came out of the two trials arising from the assault - the first wrecked by a newspaper article - which cost more than £15m in public funds. Paul Clifford, 22, a former boxer and Woodgate's friend since primary school, whose bitemarks were found on Mr Najeib's cheek, was sentenced to six years.

Woodgate's chauffeur, Neale Caveney, 22, another schoolfriend from Middlesbrough, was sentenced to 100 hours' community service for affray. All four men were cleared at the first trial of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, along with their Leeds United colleague Michael Duberry.

A fourth player, Tony Hack worth, was acquitted of grievous bodily harm and affray in the first trial because of a lack of evidence.

Mr Justice Henriques told Woodgate that he had caused terror to law-abiding people but had "suffered agonies through the currency of the trials in a way which is etched in your face".

The sentence, well below the maximum three years' jail for affray, also took into account the £13,000-a-week player's seven-figure costs.

With a career that all but collapsed after the drunken brawl on January 12 2000, Woodgate stood stony-faced as the verdicts were announced and said nothing as he left Hull crown court.

By contrast, Bowyer, a former England under-21, blew out his cheeks with relief in the dock and made a jaunty farewell - in keeping with his combative performance in court and exceptional playing form during his 23-month ordeal.

"I'd like to thank everybody for sticking by me. The people that have - I won't forget that," he said. "The people from the club at Leeds United who have stuck by me for the last two years - the manager, the chairman, all the players and the supporters who helped me get through."

In a church next to the courtroom, the Najeib family held a despairing press conference, denouncing a "failure of justice" and revealing that racist thuggery against them has included tyre-slashing a fortnight ago and two threats to their takeaway business in Sheffield. Mr Najeib's father Muhammed, 47, attacked Leeds United and made it clear that a civil action was likely.

"My son suffered a savage and racist attack by five white men," he said.

"Every time he looks in the mirror those bite marks will remind him of the day he was nearly murdered.

"It has been a living hell for our family. Our lives have been shattered. But this is not the end of the matter. I intend to fight on for justice."

Both Mr Najeib and the family's legal adviser, Suresh Grover, repeated their conviction that the attack was racist - a view partly shared by the head of the police inquiry, Detective Superintendent Eddie Emsley, but emphatically kept out of the prosecution case.

The first trial, which collapsed in April, was largely derailed by the persistent rumours about racism which led one juror to ask the judge why the Mr Najeib and his elder brother Shazad - who was with him when the brawl began - had not been prosecuted as well.

The prosecution's attempt to stop the trial as a result failed. But Mr Justice Poole called a halt less that two weeks later after a prejudicial interview with Muhammed Najeib was published by the Sunday Mirror while the jury was considering its verdicts - despite the family's stipulation that the article should not appear until after the jury had delivered its decision.