Judge frees Grobbelaar after jury fails to agree

The former Liverpool and Southampton goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, walked free from court yesterday after a jury failed to reach…

The former Liverpool and Southampton goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, walked free from court yesterday after a jury failed to reach a verdict on a final charge against him.

The Zimbabwe soccer international, acquitted by the jury on Thursday of a conspiracy charge, was freed when the prosecution said it would offer no further evidence.

The decision came on the 46th day of the match-fixing trial at Winchester Crown Court and after the jury of six women and five men had retired for more than 30 hours. At one stage yesterday the judge had indicated that he would accept a majority decision on which at least 10 were agreed.

It was the second time a jury had failed to reach a verdict on a charge alleging that Grobbelaar corruptly accepted £2,000. The charge, claiming he accepted £2,000 from his former business associate, Mr Christopher Vincent, arose from a "sting" operation involving the Sun newspaper.

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As he left the court, kissing his wife Debbie, Grobbelaar said: "To all the fans that have stood by me through all this, thank you very much indeed."

His co-accused on conspiracy charges - the goalkeeper, Hans Segers, the former footballer and television personality, John Fashanu, and a Malaysian businessman, Mr Heng Suan Lim - were acquitted on Thursday with unanimous not-guilty verdicts.

The jury also cleared Grobbelaar on the same charge - of conspiracy to give and accept gifts of money as inducements to influence or attempt to influence the outcome of football matches.

Earlier yesterday Mr Justice McCullough turned down a request for Fashanu and Segers to be paid their defence costs. No details have been disclosed, but Fashanu's legal bill is likely to total about £600,000 while Segers's is thought to be about £65,000. Fashanu was not legally aided, while Segers made a contribution towards his legal aid.

Refusing their costs applications, the judge said they had brought suspicion on themselves by their own conduct which led the prosecuting authorities into thinking the case against them was stronger than it was.

Neither Mr Lim nor Grobbelaar applied for costs.