Ex-England star Butt charged with assault of estranged wife

A FORMER england footballer has been charged with beating his estranged wife during a row.

Nicky Butt, 44, who played for manchester united and won 39 international caps, is accused of assaulting Shelly, also 44, at their £4.4million mansion.

She is understood to have suffered a cut thumb during the argument but did not require hospital treatment.

The pair, who have two children, separated last year after 11 years of marriage. Butt moved out to an apartment near their family home in the upmarket village of Hale, Cheshire.

The former midfielder – a member of united’s treblewinning ‘Class of 92’ with David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes – is a coach at united’s youth academy and director of Salford City FC. He was arrested by police in June, three months after the alleged row. Butt, pictured with Shelly, appeared before a district judge at manchester magistrates Court yesterday charged with assault by beating and causing £800 of damage to mrs Butt’s iPhone.

He faces a two- day trial in February, during which he and his wife are likely to give evidence. The maximum sentence for common assault is six months in jail.

Butt was charged last week but, in a highly unusual move, his case did not appear on the public court list. The october 17 hearing was adjourned and no journalists were present following a request from defence lawyers.

Butt’s lawyer Lisa Roberts said he strenuously denied the allegations. She said he had not been given access to photographs of his wife’s injury and claimed the damage to her phone was accidental.

‘He has no previous convictions and is of good character,’ miss Roberts added. ‘There are three statements, each of which contradict the other, and we don’t know what the scope of the case is.

‘The charges are confined to an allegation of injury of a scratch to the left hand and damage to a phone.’

Butt was granted unconditional bail.