Newcastle United’s 21 year-old star striker Andy Carroll appeared in Newcastle court today over an alleged nightclub altercation.
Andy Carroll – shown this morning in Newcastle
Notice he’s wearing his Newcastle United tie
The bad news for Andy is that he was told this morning that his assault charge is so serious, that the case is now going to be heard at the Newcastle Crown Court this summer.
Oh my.
The background to the case is that Andy was arrested after an incident in Newcastle’s Blu Bambu night club on early Sunday morning, December 7th.
Carroll was in front of Newcastle magistrates this morning, and spoke only to say his name, and he is facing a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).
The charge apparently carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The hearing was very short and the chair of the bench, Yvonne Steam, passed the case to be heard at Newcastle Crown Court on June 2nd.
These kinds of things are something you’d like to get over with very quickly, but of course the wheels of justice always move excruciatingly slowly.
But there has to now be a likelihood that Andy will have to serve some jail time, if found guilty.
If that happens he will become the second Newcastle player in a couple of years to serve time in jail, after Joey Barton spent some months in jail in the summer of 2008.
This is not the kind of news we want to hear about Newcastle players.
Comments welcome.
16 comments so far
spiderpig
Apr 29, 2010 at 11:37 AM
Comment #1massive shame.he really needs to keep away from the night clubs.he reminds me a bit of duncan ferguson in his play and his ways too.could be too late already if he goes to prison.mind you he has barton to mentor him.
Edd Case
Apr 29, 2010 at 11:37 AM
Comment #2Actually, it’ll be going to crown court because Carroll is denying it and as is his right, is opting for a dury of his peers to hear the evidence.
ABH is ABH, it doesn’t get ‘more serious’ – a more serious assault would be GBH.
ABH charging standards mean that it has to be a significant injury sustained though – even broken noses are often charged as common assaults by the CPS.
Giving somone a really nice black eye would be enough to be charged with ABH though, which is what I suspect happened in this case.
He wont face prison, that you can be certain of.
If he is found guilty (remember, you can assault someone lawfully if you felt in immediate threat etc, though the assault has to be proportionate) then I expect him to be given a large fine and perhaps communit service or similar.
lesh
Apr 29, 2010 at 11:51 AM
Comment #3Ed. Please stop painting the bleakest picture.
You and I know that time in the slammer’s based on a verdict of guilty being reached by the juryt, the seriousness of the crime (eg the injury), the circumstances and of course, previous convictions if any.
I suspect he’ll have learned a major lesson so far and trust that a suspended sentence is the worst he gets.
Jamesthefirst
Apr 29, 2010 at 11:52 AM
Comment #4He glassed someone in the face. Nothing about a 6 foot 2 man doing that can possibly be deemend self defence.
Law likes to make examples of footballers. Gerard only got off because he offered a big pay deal to the owner of the club
I hope Carroll starts for us in August but I have a feeling he’s going to prison for around 3 months for this.
What he did is indefensible and cannot be tolerated by ANYONE on here.
The boy did wrong. If he gets off it will be a miracle
Edd Case
Apr 29, 2010 at 11:54 AM
Comment #5Ive not seen written anywhere ‘reliable’ that Carroll glassed someone – where is your source Jamesthefirst?
murvar
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:05 PM
Comment #6James the first – hear the facts first. We can assume the glass – if there was a glass – didn’t cut the skin, as it would have been GBH – for which a life sentence is possible by the way. Also – no plea was taken – he may plead guilty, thus attracting a sentence discount. Even if guilty, depending on whether he has been to prison before, the court would have to consider suspending any custodial sentence before imposing one. All things considered, and on the face of the charge itself, I think it unlikely that he would go to prison.
Geordie-Gerrard7
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Comment #7Carroll didn’t glass no one, he ounces a lad and followed through to scrape a lady, she jumped on her high horse, told the lad to get him done for a nice bit of compo, this has come from someone that was there, and the text flew around. ABH is not serious, it is GBH you want to worry about.
murvar
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Comment #8Also, Ed, when I was hanging around the Newcastle law courts, a committal to Crown Court often meant a delay of up to a year! So to suggest that a June 2 date from a 29 April committal is slow is to underestimate how much more quickly things now happen – as is often said “Justice delayed is justice denied” – at least as far as the victim is concerned.
Whumpie
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Comment #9Ed and Jamesthefirst – what planet are you on? Ed – you’ve become too used to the US justice system and possible “Judge Judy” re-runs.
What’s happened is exactly what you WOULD hope for. The only reason it’s going to a crown court is because he’s obviously been strongly advised that he should defend himself to a jury. That means it’s probably some money-grabbing arse trying to extort money.
If Carroll had glassed someone, it would look very different. Literally. There would be pics of the victim with a face like a bucket of smashed crabs for a start, and this would be a GBH case which would have gone straight to the crown court.
I’d lay good money that this won’t lead to any conviction for Bigger Lad. It could even be exactly what he needs to learn to just stay out of trouble from now on.
This is GOOD news.
Jamesthefirst
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Comment #10the part about him glassing someone was in the News Of The World — so surely it must be true people? 🙂
MrT76
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Comment #11I wouldn’t worry too much about an abh charge. I was involved in an incident a couple of years ago whereby two toerags jumped me and, after a scuffle, I broke my hand on their faces. The pair of them were taken to court on the exact same charge and the end result? I got £1.90 a week off them each for 12 weeks. Bonza!!
G
Apr 29, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Comment #12Same here MrT76, I had an incident a few years back where I gave a good kicking to 3 lads who were throwing bricks at my Mums windows, was being done for ABH and assualting a minor (one of them was only a teenager), the second charge got dropped and I walked away from court in the words of the judge ‘without a blemish on my charecter’.
Whumpie
Apr 29, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Comment #13I like the sound of that judge, G. He should run for PM…
G
Apr 29, 2010 at 2:41 PM
Comment #14It was a joke of a trial Whump, I went in there and stated the facts, the judge established within seconds that the 3 idiots had all been shouting ‘come on then’, which the judge declared was ‘invitation’, therefore there was no case to answer. He also gave plod and the CPS a right ticking off for not establishing that and letting it get as far as a trial. I would vote for him!
BeeGuy
Apr 29, 2010 at 3:30 PM
Comment #15Flee the UK Andy! I’d bet Pep G at Barca would have welcomed you with open arms last night for his dinky little scurriers to throw crosses into against the Inter defense.
marlonisourking
Apr 30, 2010 at 1:03 AM
Comment #16I agree with the people saying ABH isn’t that serious a charge. I heard he glassed someone but that’s the way rumours work- I’d like to think if that were the case the charges against him would be more severe and we’d have heard about it in the news. Geordie-Gerard’s version sounds pretty believable to be fair. Can’t see much coming of this myself. Only thing that won’t do him any favours is slotting Stevie T one while waiting for his case to be heard… Obviously no charge or conviction from it but you can bet that the jury will have heard about it. Might not help his ‘upstanding character’. Hopefully there’ll be Toon fans on the panel 😀