Leeds United footballer Mr Michael Duberry today admitted in court that he lied repeatedly to police in an attempt to stop his best friend and team mate Mr Jonathan Woodgate from "getting into trouble" over an attack on an Asian student.
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Mr Michael Duberry
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Mr Duberry (25) has told Hull Crown Court that Mr Woodgate admitted to him that he had been involved in a fight with Asians on the night Mr Sarfraz Najeib was beaten.
Questioned by his barrister Ms Clare Montgomery QC, Mr Duberry said he did not tell the police the truth when he was questioned by detectives several days after the attack in January last year.
The former Chelsea centre-half told the jury that before he was questioned by police he spoke to Mr Woodgate.
"I went to see Woody, just to ask him what he said," he told the jury. "I asked him if he had said he had come back to my house and he said: 'Yes, I came in a taxi'."
The court has heard that it was Mr Duberry who drove Mr Woodgate and four of his friends from the North East back from the Majestyk nightclub to his home 10 minutes away from the city centre.
But Mr Duberry told the police the group had come back to his house in a taxi.
"It was a lie," he said. "I did not want to say anything that would get Woody into any more trouble. I did not want to get him in trouble so I went along with his story."
Ms Montgomery asked: "Why did you not, given the chance, come clean about it?"
Mr Duberry: "I thought I would go in and give a statement, say what I had to say and that would be the end of it."
Mr Duberry said that he travelled to Leeds to see his solicitors on February 17th after being told police wanted to see him again.
He said he went to the offices of Leeds United club solicitor Mr Peter McCormick, but instead saw another lawyer.
"I told him I had an idea what the police wanted to speak to me about and I wanted to change my story and tell it how it is, but he then started talking some legal talk and said he couldn't represent me and left the room and went to ring McCormick.
"He said perjury or something. If I changed it now I would be done for perjury ... jail or something and different phrases and it just scared me."
The following day he saw Mr McCormick, who the court has heard is also a director of the club in charge of discipline.
"I told him I knew what it was about and I wanted to change what I wanted to say and he advised me not to," said Duberry.
"He used the word perjury and said 'Say what is in your statement and stick with it'."
He told Ms Montgomery the police had given him a chance to change his statement and when asked why he didn't he said: "Because Mr McCormick advised me to stay with my same statement."
England international Mr Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough; Leeds United midfielder Mr Lee Bowyer, 24, of Leeds; and Mr Neale Caveney and Mr Paul Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Najeib. They also deny affray.
The four accused also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack.
PA