Football fan accused of role in post-match brawl at station was 'visiting Santa's Grotto'
A man who is accused of being involved in football violence between two sets of fans at a railway station after a game claimed he was visiting Santa Claus' grotto at a garden centre so couldn't have been there.
Adam Shelton appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court accused of affray, a charge he denies. The charge surrounds trouble which broke out at Wolverhampton station after the Wolves vs Tottenham Hotspur match on December 15, 2019, in which a senior worker from West Midlands Trains was struck.
On the opening day of the trial, the court saw CCTV evidence of the trouble which was provided by British Transport Police.
The case against Shelton, aged 28 of Glebe Avenue, Bedworth, has been postponed twice due to a backlog of cases but two men from Telford, two from Hertfordshire and one from Suffolk have already admitted affray for their part in the trouble.
John Lloyd-Richards, prosecuting said: "The defendant claims he was at a Dobbies garden centre on the day of the game where the youngest member of the party visited Santa's Grotto so couldn't have been in Wolverhampton, he says the last time he was at a game was the FA cup semi-final earlier in the year."
The CCTV footage shown to the court saw a man coming onto the station platform at around 5.30pm where the two sets of fans were mingling and gesturing at each other after the game, which Tottenham had won.
It showed him waving his arms and gesturing towards one set of fans before the two groups came together and fought. The prosecution alleges that man was Shelton.
Mr Lloyd Richards said: "There were a number of arrests made during the altercation on the station in which a transport worker was struck and more afterwards when specialist CCTV officers inspected the footage.
"There was also an officer present who specialises in football related offences – sometimes called a 'spotter' – and he identified Shelton as being the man who was waving his arms and goading the crowd just before the trouble started."
The case continues.