(posted 7245 days ago)Times
June 18, 2004Euro 2004
Ejected 'fans' fly home in disgrace
From David Lister in the Algarve and Sam CoatesTEN England football fans arrived back at Heathrow in disgrace last night after being voluntarily deported from Portugal following violent clashes in Albufeira.
The ten, who appeared in court in Albufeira on Wednesday, arrived shortly after 9pm and were greeted by scores of police officers. Seven received suspended sentences and could be forced to surrender their passports to prevent them attending future overseas football games. Three were acquitted, on condition that they agreed to leave the country and do not return within a year.
Garry Mann, 47, a firefighter from Faversham, Kent, who was given a two-year jail term on Wednesday after being singled out in a Portuguese court as a ringleader, was not among the group.
The fans, dressed casually in T-shirts, shorts and jeans, were kept on board the jet until the rest of the passengers had disembarked.
While all ten faced police questioning at the airport, the seven who received suspended sentences could be forced to surrender their passports.
About 30 police officers, some of them from the Football Intelligence Unit, were waiting inside the arrivals gate at Terminal 2 as the plane touched down.
Another 30 England fans are to fly home today after agreeing to be deported for allegedly fighting with police.
The group, who looked bruised and bloodied as they appeared before Albufeira Criminal Court, spent the night in a detention centre in the Algarve after being accused of rioting early on Wednesday morning.
The group, all handcuffed, were escorted by military police from a theatre next to the court, where they were taken just before the hearing because there were too many of them to hold at the courthouse. Several had black eyes and cuts on their faces, and bloodstains on their clothing. One wore a T-shirt ripped almost from top to bottom.
British police sources said ten of the accused were known to police, but did not have convictions. They were arrested in a second night of violence on “the strip”, a mile-long street of bars and tattoo shops in Albufeira, the most popular resort with British holidaymakers on the Algarve. Five had minor criminal convictions.
Those named in court included Richard Freeman, 25, from Reading; Denis Gallagher, 34, from Newquay, Cornwall; Stephen Weston, from Carlisle; Brian Ward, from Louth, Lincolnshire; Andrew Mountford, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire; Michael Kelly, from West Dulwich, South London; Christopher Bony, from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear; Nicholas Rogers, from Kennington, South London; and Christopher Hodgkinson, from Warrington.
They will have a trial in Portugal towards the end of this year but do not have to attend. It was unclear whether any jail sentences handed down could be served in Britain. Before leaving Portugal, they will have been allowed to give statements to police to be used at the trial but they did not have to do so.
Last night thousands of England fans danced and sang after watching the Switzerland match in bars on the strip in Albufeira. Sunburnt men pulled off their tops and hoisted their friends on their shoulders, chanting “Rule Britannia” and “If it wasn’t for the English, you’d be Krauts”.
Outside the La Bamba bar, where fighting has erupted twice over the past few days, two units of armed riot police kept a watchful eye on the fans and occasionally passed up the street between them. The atmosphere was good-natured, although several local bar-owners said they were expecting a repeat of the earlier violence.