A second witness told a court today she saw Leeds United soccer stars Mr Jonathan Woodgate and Mr Lee Bowyer running down a street near the scene of an attack in which a young Asian student was kicked and beaten unconscious.
Ms Claire Waterworth told Hull Crown Court she had been walking along Boar Lane in Leeds around the time of the attack when she first saw Mr Woodgate, who had been pointed out to her earlier in a nightclub, jogging towards her.
Ms Waterworth said that seconds later a group of four or five men came running down the same street and that among them was a man she had been told was Mr Lee Bowyer.
The trial of the soccer stars has been told that 20-year-old student Mr Sarfraz Najeib was attacked following a chase in nearby Mill Hill.
Ms Waterworth said that earlier in the evening she saw Woodgate and a group of friends drinking in two pubs and in the Majestyk nightclub.
It is alleged that a confrontation took place outside the nightclub between Mr Najeib and a group of his friends and a group of white youths.
Mr Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough; Mr Bowyer 24, an England Under-21 international, of Leeds; Mr Tony Hackworth, 20, a Leeds United reserve team striker of Leeds; and Mr Neale Caveney and Mr Paul Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Najeib of Rotherham, South Yorkshire. They also deny affray.
Mr Woodgate, Mr Caveney and Mr Clifford, along with Leeds United player Mr Michael Duberry, 24, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack in January last year.
PA