pompeymart1965, who was one of those taken to court for pitch encroachment back along, tells us how this worked out.
For anyone interested (probably no one) the court case I had pending for pitch encroachment after Younes’ equaliser has been dropped by the CPS.
As the Sky pics clearly showed I was stood clapping and then trying to assist a man who had fallen over when a ‘helpful’ steward assisted me from the raucous thousands (well about 5 or 6 fans anyway!!!) onto the ‘safety’ of the pitch so he could get me arrested.
I had pleaded guilty too as I had a dirty butt where I’d hit the pitch and just wanted to get myself out of the cells so I could find my mate who, luckily, had waited and who was being fed incorrect information when asking what was happening (he was being told I wasn’t co-operating and was demanding a lawyer present before I would speak). I’d pleaded guilty to try to speed the process up as I couldn’t see how my word against the stewards would make it worth me fighting it.
I had my phone taken from me and was allowed no contact with the ‘outside world’ so couldn’t advise my mate how long i might be. Luckily, and thankfully, he had waited and I got back to Staffs (where I work and was working next morning at 8am) just before midnight.
Luckily, when I saw myself sprawling on Sky Sports News footage at work on Monday, I managed to get a recording of the film saved before they stopped running the story (which was when they realised I had been charged.)
The strange bit is, without the Sky pics, I’d have been quite heavily fined, banned from football grounds for a time and for what?
As it was, I was banned by the police from any footy match in England or Wales until the court appearance and missed the win against Liverpool.
Sorry to bore anyone with this but I did say I would write again once I was safe to do so. Apologies if people think I’m just a lout who got lucky. I have seen the view of some on here who think anyone who has a drink and is in the slightest bit noisy/passionate is a drunken idiot and said my piece.
I would like to thank the FSF for backing me esp. Amanda Jacks, pompeyrug for his initial help and Ken Malley (although he seemingly went AWOL once the post about me at Hull has been posted). Strangely, the poster that day lives close to my work and, at some point, we will have a drink together. I am away from Thursday for 18 days to the Far East so will be watching Pompey games 7 hours ahead and in 30 degrees centigrade heat, not 30 degrees Fahrenheit!
Hope to meet some others from here and put faces to names and try to help sing our way to safety (long shot I know but I’m happy to never say die but cant see as many games as I’d like.)
PUP
Written by pompeymart1965.
The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.
