'Duberry lied to stay out of jail'

Soccer star Jonathan Woodgate today accused his Leeds United team-mate Michael Duberry of lying to save himself from prison.

Duberry, 26, has told a court that Woodgate admitted being involved in a fight which left student Sarfraz Najeib badly injured outside a Leeds nightclub last year.

But today Woodgate, 21, claimed that he had not been involved in the fight and had never told Duberry that he had.

Woodgate was asked by his counsel David Fish: "Can you think why Michael Duberry had said that?" Woodgate replied: " Michael Duberry was in the dock and he did not want to go to prison and that was the only way out for him."

Woodgate admitted being in the Mill Hill area of Leeds where a fight had taken place.

Woodgate said he met a group of friends and visited several bars, including a lap dancing club, ending up in the Majestyk nightclub.

When one friend, James Hewison, was asked to leave because he was drunk, Woodgate said he followed shortly afterward and saw him in an argument.

"I remember looking up the road and looking back and I saw something going off," Woodgate said.

"A punch or a push or something between some Asians and Jamie (Hewison). I remember everyone just started running. I went to see what was going on."

Woodgate said he was running at the back of the group and remembered team-mate Lee Bowyer passing him before he went over on his ankles.

Woodgate said: "I have bad ankles. I have to strap them up before playing and training. My ankles are generally weak."

Woodgate said he then heard "loads of shouting" but did not see what was going on. "It was dark," he said. "There was just loads of stuff going on down there." Woodgate said he met Duberry as he walked back towards the Majestyk nightclub and said he remembered telling him: "There is something going on down Mill Hill."

Asked by his counsel if anything else was said, Woodgate told the jury: "Just a conversation just like that."

Duberry was cleared at a trial earlier this year of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Asked about Duberry's fears of going to prison, Woodgate told Hull Crown Court today: "He said 'I am not going to prison for 20 months'." Asked if what Duberry had told the jury was true or untrue, Woodgate replied: "Untrue". Woodgate, Bowyer, 24, and two of Woodgate's friends, Paul Clifford and Neale Caveney, both 21, deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent and affray. The trial continues