HITMAN STRIKES TWICE
Griff hits out after being found guilty of speeding
Griffiths clinches late win for Celtic just hours after clash outside court, while Lafferty leveller gives Stevie G’s Gers a vital away point
CELTIC star Leigh Griffiths pushed his hand into a photographer’s camera yesterday after he was convicted of speeding. The footballer, 27, rushed from Dundee’s Justice of the Peace Court to get to Celtic Park in time for his team’s Europa League match against Rosenberg. As he walked past photographers outside the court, Griffiths – nicknamed The Thumb – tried to cover his face. He then shoved his hand into a snapper’s lens. The Hoops ace was found guilty of driving his Mercedes at 62pmh on a 50mph stretch of Dundee’s Kingsway in June last year. He was fined £200 and had three penalty points added to his licence.
The case took three full days to complete over a four-month period.
The first hearing was cut short after the court heard Griffiths had “childcare issues” and had to go home.
The second was adjourned last month so he could make a key match against Lithuanian side Suduva.
Griffiths’s lawyer Robert Sheridan claimed there were “evidential breaks” in the Crown case against the star.
He argued that because a laser speed device involved in the case was made by a US company, it did not meet UK Government requirements.
Sheridan also claimed that there weren’t enough speed signs along the central reservation of the road where Griffiths was caught, which “was not fair” to his client.
Delivering his verdict, Justice Derek Cochrane, said: “The charge has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.”
Griffiths is fighting another speeding charge at the JP Court in Edinburgh. He is accused of driving at 54mph in a 40 zone in the capital.
A trial has been set for December.