Leicester player too famous for community service
Title-winner to miss part of celebrations after judge refuses to impose fine and gives him a curfew instead
A LEICESTER City player yesterday suggested that he is too famous to carry out community service imposed for attacking his then girlfriend.
But Danny Simpson’s plea to pay a fine as an alternative backfired and he will now miss part of his team’s titlewinning celebrations and end-of-season party after a judge ordered that he be subject to a curfew with immediate effect.
Simpson, 29, had finished only half of the 300 hours’ community service to which he was sentenced last June for assaulting Stephanie Ward, the mother of his child, in a row at their house in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in December 2014.
The Premier League-winning footballer yesterday asked Manchester magistrates’ court to revoke the rest of his sentence.
Gary Ryan, his solicitor, said the media had twice discovered where he had been doing his unpaid work and this “intrusion” had made it impossible for him to complete it.
Simpson first began community work in an Age UK charity shop in Eccles, parking his £200,000 Lamborghini round the corner.
The placement was suspended after his presence attracted press photogra- phers. He was then moved to the HQ of Purple Futures, working with people with learning difficulties.
However, it was again interrupted by press interest.
Alexandra Simmonds, the District Judge, accepted that the reasons for him not completing the unpaid work were not his fault.
However, she argued that Simpson, who is understood to earn £35,000 a week, had so much money that a fine would be “no punishment” and instead imposed a 21-day, 10pm to 6am curfew.
Mr Ryan argued that a curfew would be especially “onerous”, as Leicester still had one game to play, against Chelsea on Sunday, with a function at a London hotel that night. That would be followed by an open-top bus tour of Leicester on Monday and a trip to Thailand, starting on Tuesday, to celebrate their Premiership success.
Judge Simmonds was unmoved and ordered Simpson to start his curfew immediately. With the player shaking his head in the dock, she said: “This was an offence of domestic violence and the courts take domestic violence very seriously. You will have to serve your sentence. You will need to be in tonight at 10pm.”
Simpson must observe the 10pm to 6am curfew at his home in Swinton, Salford, for the next 21 days. He will be monitored by an electronic ankle tag.
The player was convicted of assault after a police officer called to his house found him sitting on top of Ms Ward with his hands around her neck. He denied the offence but was found guilty after a trial.
‘The courts take domestic violence very seriously. You must serve your sentence. You need to be in tonight at 10pm’