Sheffield Wednesday’s goalkeeper Chris Kirkland, who was assaulted by a fan during Sheffield Wednesday’s match against Leeds on Friday at Hillsborough, has now gotten justice when a city court has sentenced that fan a four months jail term for said charges. Reportedly, the fan is named Aaron Cawley and he is from Cheltenham; he himself admitted and accepted all the charges against him including pitch invasion and assaulting goalkeeper. The match was score ended in a 1-1 draw, but it showed one of the ugliest scenes in soccer history when a fan was seen pushing goalkeeper on his face in a live televised match. Sheffield Magistrates’ Court found him guilty and passed its judgment sending him behind the bars for 16 weeks term. Sky Sports, that captured the incident, telecasted it lively that causes this case to take on priority basis by the police. Perhaps, police arrested him very soon after looking at the footage and presented him before a court of law.
Reportedly, Cawley is an unemployed and a diehard fan of leads who follows its every match – home and abroad, even he has committed similar kinds of offences four times in the past too. He cited his defense behind his alcoholism (he took a combination of beer, cider and vodka) as he was drunk during that time and doesn’t remember anything about it. Though, District Judge Naomi Redhouse accepted his side of defense where he described how he came to know about the incident and how he himself contacted the police and sky sport for an apology, but since the damage has already been done and already watched by millions of peoples worldwide, he had to face an imprisonment. Besides imprisonment, he is also fined with £85 plus a new banning order for a five years term. Notably, he is already serving two banning orders issued against him in the past.
Reacting to the case, A Leeds United’s spokesman said, “We are pleased to see the matter dealt with by the courts so quickly. The club will also ban the individual for life from Elland Road when this banning order expires. While we are pleased to see justice brought so quickly, our one disappointment is that we feel the sentence could, and should, have been considerably longer.” On the other hand, Kirkland is undergoing through a treatment for his said injury which is not as big to recover sooner though.