Football club official is convicted of dangerous driving after judge rules he had deliberately driven towards a referee at Ballymena Showgrounds complex
An official of a football club in Ballymena has been convicted of dangerous driving after a judge ruled he had deliberately driven a vehicle towards a referee.
The 53-year-old had contested the dangerous driving allegation at Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena.
Michael Godfrey, a treasurer of North Ballymena Rangers, who play in the Ballymena Saturday Morning Football League, was at court on Tuesday, August 4.
The defendant, with an address listed as Wakehurst Park in Ballymena but now living at Springfields in Kells, had denied deliberately driving at a referee who had moments earlier officiated at a game involving North Ballymena Rangers at the Ballymena Showgrounds pitches complex on October 18 last year.
He said that he had no issue with the referee and claimed that he was "speeding out of the grounds" to get to a toilet at an address rather than use the facilities at the Showgrounds and as such was accepting that his driving amounted to careless driving but not dangerous.
The referee told the court that he was heading back towards changing rooms and "just heard from behind me a car coming at speed".
He glanced over his shoulder "and had to jump out of the road to evade contact". He said that he was "shaken, taken aback".
He told the court that a Rangers' player had earlier been given a red card after the final whistle and after that somebody had shouted that the ref was a "f**king w**ker".
Sent Off
Another player had also been sent off during the game. The ref said that the person driving the car was not any of the players who had been sent off.
He noted that the driver of the car was wearing a North Ballymena Rangers' colours and he used his match notebook and pen to record the number plate of the Ford Puma as it sped off out of the ground. Rangers won the match against Ravel Rovers 3-2.
A defence barrister accepted that the defendant had been been driving at speed but that he wasn't driving towards the ref with whom he "had no axe to grind".
The referee said that the video showed the car stopping and "waiting" for him to walk across and he believed the car driving towards him had been "deliberate".
The defendant told the court that he "took a wild bad pain in my stomach which I had to go to a toilet very quick and I drove to my ex-partner's house to go to the toilet".
He told a prosecuting lawyer that he would not use the toilets in the Showgrounds as they were "that dirty that you wouldn't even go into it yourself".
He claimed that he had not noticed the referee as he was driving off and "there was a car parked at the side and I swerved to come out by the car".
Judge Broderick said that the prosecution case is that a referee said after the final whistle he "received abusive language" and had showed a red card to a Rangers player and he also heard "colourful language" aimed at him.
And then the ref said that he "heard a car coming at speed and had to move out of the way".
Medical Condition
The judge said that the defendant's account was that because of a medical condition he was "desperate" to get to the toilet. He said that Godrey could have used the Showgrounds facilities but had claimed they were "very dirty".
The judge said that the defendant's account was that he was desperate to get to the toilet but the footage shows him stationary in the car talking to a person. "That is not really consistent with somebody who is desperate to get to a toilet."
Judge Broderick said the footage showed him driving at speeds with the wheels spinning on gravel and there was a "rightwards, slight albeit, movement of his vehicle towards" where the referee was.
The judge said the defendant said the slight movement was because a car was about to pull out.
However, the judge said the driving was "more consistent with the apprehension" that the ref had "that the vehicle was being driven in his direction".
Judge Broderick said "my view is that Mr Godfrey, for whatever reason, had taken some umbrage" at how the referee had conducted himself and "he drove at speed in his direction and he moved his vehicle towards him.
"In my view that wasn't a careless act, it was a deliberate act. That falls far below what we expect of a competent driver and I am satisfied the prosecution have proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt and I enter a conviction".
The defendant was convicted of dangerous driving. The court was told the defendant had 21 previous convictions.
The defendant has now been banned from driving for 15 months when he will then have to re-sit his test to get back on the roads. There is also a £300 fine.
A prosecutor asked the judge to consider a Football Banning Order but the judge said "it is not that type of case" and he did not consider that "necessary or proportionate" as the driving ban and fine "will be as much a penalty as anything".
The defence barrister told the court a Football Banning Order was not applicable to lower level football anyhow.
The defendant had bail fixed for appeal in the sum of £500.