Brother of tragic Leeds fan is jailed over new soccer violence

Andy Loftus arriving at Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry Agency

Andrew Loftus, 42, was sent to prison for 12 months today after a court heard he punched a Tottenham Hotspur fan unconscious during a clash between rival supporters.

CCTV footage played in court showed the injured man laying motionless in the road outside Yates’s Wine Lodge on Boar Lane after he was struck by Loftus.

The father-of-two was among nine men sent to prison yesterday over the incident which happened on January 27 this year after the Leeds United versus Spurs match at Elland Road.

Loftus’s brother, Christopher, was aged 35 when he and fellow Leeds fan Kevin Speight, 40, were fatally stabbed on the eve of Leeds’s Uefa Cup semi-final tie against Galatasaray on April 5, 2000.

Jailing the men, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: “What occurred on January 27 was mindless violence in the centre of this city in the early evening.

“It will not be tolerated and the message has to be understood that those who engage in conduct of this type will receive an immediate custodial sentence.”

Loftus’s barrister, Richard Wright QC, urged the judge to impose a suspended sentence upon his client.

He said Loftus, of Stoney Rock Grove, Burmantofts, stood to lose his well paid job as an IT worker in the financial sector if he was sent to prison. Mr Wright said Loftus had never dealt with the emotions of losing his brother until recently when he had been helped by a charity which deals with those who have lost loved ones to murder.

He added that Loftus had done an “enormous amount” of work for charity.

The eight other men jailed after pleading guilty to affray were: Mark Holman, 49, of Brayton Green Leeds, six months; Kevin Emmett, 41, of Halton Moor Avenue, Leeds, six months; Wayne Mallinson, 35, of Brook Close, Barnsley, six months; Dean Pressley, 47, of Miles Road, Sheffield, nine months; Craig Umpleby, 42, of, Woodfield Road, Harrogate, eight months; Joseph Morton, 21, Strawberry Avenue, Leeds, 13 months; Joseph Harman, 21 Cherrywood Gardens, Leeds, six months, and Mitchell Davis, 18, of Heights Way, Leeds, 15 months.