Footballer avoids jail after admitting carnival attack
AFOOTBALLER has been spared jail for his part in an attack at a carnival in which a teenager was stabbed.
Hull City player Mallik Wilks, 21, was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said: “It occurs to me that if I was to deprive you of your liberty, as I understand it – I am no footballing enthusiast – the new season starts the month after next and if you were not available to play for your club I was told it may be your contract will be terminated.
“Given you have stayed clear of any trouble since the commission of these particular offences, that is what caused me to take the route I have taken.
“It does not minimise in any way at all the hurt suffered by those who were victims of these assaults.”
The footballer was also ordered to pay a total of £2,900 in compensation to the victims, who were injured at the Chapeltown carnival in Leeds three years ago.
David Gordon, prosecuting, told the court the charge of affray related to an incident on August 28, 2018 in which Curtis Rock, then 19, was “set upon” by a number of youths and suffered a punctured lung after being stabbed.
He said Wilks, 18 at the time of the offence, was identified as being among the group who carried out the attack, although Mr Rock told police he was not the “main aggressor” and could not say whether the footballer had been one of the men who punched or kicked him.
Mr Rock said he felt a sharp stabbing pain during the assault, which lasted about 15 seconds, the court heard.
Mr Gordon said there was no forensic evidence to link Wilks to either of two knives at the scene.
Wilks admitted assaulting Jonathan Rock-Morgan, the cousin of Mr Rock, who some witnesses said had tried to intervene in the first attack.
Mr Gordon said: “Before he could do so, he was punched to the face, knocked to the ground and kicked whilst on the ground.”
His cochlear implant was knocked out as he fell and he was left with bruising to his face, Mr Gordon said.
The defendant was the only person to have been charged in connection with either of the attacks, the court heard.
Wilks’ older brother, Raheem, died months before the incident, in January 2017, after he was shot in a barber’s shop in Harehills.
Three men were jailed for his murder, thought to be a gangland revenge shooting.
Wilks, who previously played for Leeds United, had been told following submissions at an earlier hearing that he would not face an immediate prison sentence.
James Lake, defending, said Wilks had made “active and positive steps” since the offence.
He said his financial circumstances had changed since a hearing at the beginning of the month and he now received £3,000 per week.
Restraining orders preventing Wilks from approaching the two victims were also ordered.