Soccer star: I caught man who stole watch

Soccer star Dwight Yorke today told how he chased and caught a mugger fleeing with his diamond-encrusted watch.

The Birmingham City striker was attacked by three men in the lavatories of the Funky Buddha club in Mayfair, Southwark Crown Court heard. But when they fled with his £36,000 Franck M?ller Conquistador King timepiece, he ran after them.

Yorke, 33, said: "I was shouting, 'somebody has stolen my watch, somebody has stolen my watch'." He soon caught up with one man, celebrity minder Godfrey Kessie, 25, and cornered him in a Tube station.

He leapt on Kessie but a passer-by mistook him for the aggressor and tried to pull him away. However, by that time several bouncers and photographers had arrived after joining the chase and the robber gave up the watch.

"I was just happy I had got the watch back and the man had been caught," said Yorke.

Kessie, of Wood Green, admitted robbery on 30 June last year. His alleged accomplices Maiur Hirani, 25, of Kenton, and Abbas Rizvi, 24, of Edgware, deny the charge. The trial continues.