Breaking news - Steven Gerrard arrested

longchiambutz SG

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was arrested early on Monday after a fight in a bar on Merseyside, reports and a police source said.

LONDON (AFP) –
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was arrested early on Monday after a fight in a bar on Merseyside, reports and a police source said.

The fight took place overnight in Southport, near Liverpool in northwest England, hours after English Premier League leaders Liverpool won 5-1 away to Newcastle on Sunday, with Gerrard scoring two goals.

“Six men were arrested on suspicion of section 20 assault on Lord Street,” said a spokesman for Merseyside Police, without officially confirming England midfielder Gerrard’s identity.

A 34-year-old local man was taken to hospital with injuries to his face, not believed to be life threatening, after the incident around 2:30 am (0230 GMT) he added.

The six men, who remained in custody, included a 28-year-old man from Formby, north of Liverpool, as well as other men aged 33, 31, 29, 19 and 18. Gerrard is 28.

Gerrard was arrested after a disturbance at the Lounge Inn, a restaurant close to the junction of Bold Street and Stanley Street.

The Lounge Inn also doubles-up as a DJ and live music venue. Southport, a prosperous seaside town, is known as somewhere where footballers from nearby Premier League clubs such as Liverpool go to socialise.

No one from the restaurant was available to comment on Monday.

A spokesman for Liverpool Football Club declined to confirm or deny that Gerrard was involved.

Gerrard, who has played 70 times for England since making his international debut in 2000, is not renowned for off-field indiscretions.

However, in 2001, he was spotted out drinking 11 hours before he was due to meet up with the rest of the England squad and had to apologise to then national manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Liverpool’s victory at Newcastle combined with second-placed Chelsea’s draw against Fulham on Sunday ensured the Merseyside club finished 2008 with a three-point lead at the top of the Premier League table.

Gerrard, speaking after the Newcastle match, said: “This is the best team I have played with.

“If we want to stay at the top and be involved in this title race we have got to deal with the pressure. But if we keep playing like this we will be there,” he added.

Liverpool won the last of their record 18 English titles in 1990 and the availability of Gerrard, long regarded as the club’s best player, is widely considered essential if the ‘Reds’ are to win the Premier League this season.

In April, Gerrard’s father revealed how a Merseyside ‘underworld’ figure had threatened to shoot his son in the legs and extort money from the footballer.
Born in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton, Gerrard has only ever played professional club football for Liverpool, for whom he made his debut in 1998.

longchiambutz SG

let’s hope it’s not a serious case!

798 SG

dun think gerrard was involved in the fight. must be those reporters who trying to cook up stories to lower pool's morale.

charleslee SG

let's pray hard tt gerrard is nt the fella that directly smashed the bottle on the DJ...

longchiambutz SG

From The Times UK:

Steven Gerrard will return to training with Liverpool this morning after Rafael Benítez called him yesterday to promise the club’s full support in his bid to clear his name.

Benítez, the Liverpool manager, was surprised to hear that Gerrard had been caught up in the alleged incident, but he assured his captain by phone that he has the club’s full support. Gerrard is said to have felt dejected after spending much of the previous day in police custody, but he was grateful for the call from Benítez.

There is no threat of disciplinary action or being stripped of the captaincy unless Gerrard is found guilty of the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. After the squad was given a day off yesterday, the England midfield player will return to training eager to turn his mind back to football and keeping Liverpool on course for their first league title since 1990.

Gerrard has been offered the backing of his agent, Struan Marshall, and his family, while there is not thought to be any prospect of losing either of his main commercial deals, with adidas and Lucozade Sport, which bring him a total of about £750,000 a year in addition to his £5.2 million salary from Liverpool. Steve Martin, chief executive of M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment, said: “Steven Gerrard is known as a model professional and someone that kids look up to, so I think the first reaction people have with something like this is that it is out of character for him even to be connected to it. He has a certain image, squeaky-clean but with a kind of edge, that makes him appealing to sponsors. I would be surprised if his main sponsors did not stand by him.”

longchiambutz SG

Tis is to Stevie-G:

**
When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll ne-ever walk alone

This may not be his darkest storm, but at this moment, he needs the support of people around him, including the fans.

So, anyone one here singing along with me?

longchiambutz SG

some interesting reads xtracted fm other uk-forum:-

When we now all know that Stevie’s been charged with assault and affray it’s time to look at what might happen to our skipper in the future.

What seems clear is that the police, and the CPS, seems to think that they have enough evidence against Stevie to charge him and make the charges stick in court. On basis of this they now decided to charge him with assaultt (causing ABH) and affray and not under Section 20 (GBH) as reported to start with. In seeing this it looks like the case has gone from something ‘big’ to something somewhat smaller, or should we say something that happens everyday in some of our pubs aruond the country.

Based on this it’s quite likely that Stevie’s gonna get of with a discharge or a fine at worst.

Looking at this it would be interesting to see what happens to Gerrard the footballer, as it seems to be quite unclear what view the club or indeed the FA miht take of this incident.

There should in my mind be no doubt that there will be a reaction from the club towards Stevie. He might deserve a hefty fine after this, but there should be no need for some heavier punishment to our captain.

Regarding the FA it’s hard to say what that lot might come up with, but I’ll hope they will look at the sensible side of it and leave him all alone. This had NOTHING to do with football and should therefore be dealt with by the appropriate authorities (e.g. The Police and the Courts).

Finally let’s all stand behind our skipper. We’re all just people who sometimes make a mistake as Stevie has done here!!

longchiambutz SG

and some legal definitions (oso xtracted):-

As for legally speaking ABH is the second on the list of physical injuries (after GBH?):

Assault is a word or action that puts a person in fear of physical harm eg “I’m going to kick your head in!!” No physical injury is required.

Battery is unwanted physical contact of any sort and can be anything from a clip round the back of the head to spitting on someone’s clothes. NB there are certain exceptions such as bumping into someone on a crowded bus is not battery

ABH is more than “merely trivial” physical injury. No further comment as that’s what he’s been charged with.

GBH is breaking bones or causing serious internal injuries.

GBH with intent is the most serious [all others can be done under a mens rea of recklessness, ie just being stupid [drunk intent by the way is still intent]]

Whole thing comes from the Offences Against the Persons Act 1862.

Affray by the way is three or more people acting in concert and creating a public disorder and/or engaging in violent behaviour.

side-notes: Gerrard is chg with ABH and Affray

X-men SG

I just hope this won't affect his performance on the pitch.

xstryker SG

he keh kiang want to get into trouble

tsk tsk

kopredkop SG

does anyone know which club the 'assault victim' supports? i will not be surprise if he supports man utd or chelsea.

charleslee SG

if i'm nt wrong, he's a manure supporter, read it at the papers...

Fantagf SG

oh, dear, mr gerard. Me once a Liverpool fan.

798 SG

if i'm nt wrong, he's a manure supporter, read it at the papers...

then he deserve to be beaten up.