Jury are told bouncer ‘did what he had to’

A BOUNCER on trial for attacking Shane Williams and three other men in a Cardiff nightclub is being made a scapegoat after the former rugby international chose “to relive his greatest hits in the nightclubs of Cardiff and came off second-best”, a court has heard.

Yesterday defence barrister Heath Edwards, representing Dave Wing, told the court: “It’s not one rule for the working man and another for a glamorous rugby star. If Shane Williams chooses to relive his greatest hits in the nightclubs of Cardiff and comes off second-best, that doesn’t mean you have to look for a scapegoat.

“What Dave Wing did that night was simple, he did what he had to do. He didn’t choose to be there that night, he had to be there as he was working on the door. He didn’t go looking for trouble but trouble came for him in the form of Shane Williams, Dean Williams, Rhodri Williams and Stewart Herbert.”

Coyote Ugly bouncer Wing, 53, of Shearman Place, Grangetown, Cardiff, and his co-accused Dean Flowers, 32, of Closy-carlwm, Thornhill, Cardiff and Haydn Morgan, 42, of Herbert Street, Bridgend, deny affray.

The court had heard during the trial how Shane Williams’ brother Dean was left unconscious after the alleged incident which followed the Wales v South Africa match at the Principality Stadium on December 2 last year.

The former Wales and Ospreys winger was out with his brother and friends Rhodri Williams and Stewart Herbert in Cardiff city centre after the game.

They were drinking at the nightclub on St Mary Street just before 10pm when someone approached the group and tried to butt Dean Williams.

After seeing this incident, door staff working at the venue ejected the fourman group from the premises, but an altercation outside Coyote Ugly, caught on CCTV, culminated in Dean Williams lying unconscious on the floor.

Yesterday defence barrister Heath Edwards made his closing speech on behalf of his client Dave Wing at Cardiff Crown Court.

Addressing the jury, Mr Edwards said: “The prosecution’s case draws complaint against Dave Wing in two respects. They say he has deliberately kicked Dean Williams in the head and the prosecution say he has put Dean Williams in a chokehold for no legitimate reason.”

He said the chokehold was carried out with “reasonable force to control the situation” and in a way “so no harm came to Dean Williams as a result”.

Referring to Wing’s chokehold on Dean Williams, Mr Edwards said: “He’s done what he achieved to do and stops there. He rises, leaves him there with his friends in the street and the ambulance arrives when the door closes behind him.

“He is entitled to use reasonable force in those circumstances and he has a number of people to protect and a property to protect.

“I invite you to conclude he knew exactly what he was doing in those circumstances. It was a careful, considerate act undertaken by a professional man with considerable experience, protecting those on the door in Cardiff, which he had done for 25 years.”

Recorder Duncan Bould then went over the evidence of the case, and told the jury they were “allowed to draw common sense inferences from the facts you find to have been proved”.

He then guided the jury on the law on self-defence.

“Self-defence is more or less common sense,” he said. “You must consider two questions. Firstly, did the defendant you are considering believe or may have believed it was necessary to use force to defend himself or another person from an attack on him or another?

“Secondly, was the amount of force the defendant used reasonable in all the circumstances, bearing in mind the danger he perceived to be? If you conclude a defendant whose case you are considering was using self-defence or selfdefence of another, then you must find him to be not guilty.

“If a defendant overreacts and lashes out in retaliation, if the defendant was the aggressor, he can’t claim self-defence.”

The jurors retired to consider their verdicts shortly after noon yesterday. After deliberating for more than three-and-ahalf hours, the case was adjourned and will resume on Monday.