Student ‘feared for his life’ in attack by landlord

A former football player turned landlord grabbed student by the neck in a row over cleaning – court hears

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A Sheffield student feared for his life when his landlord, an ex-professional footballer, turned landlord grabbed one of his student tenants by the throat and snarled “don’t you know who I am?” in a row over the cleaning, a court heard.

Ex-professional footballer Paul Williams – who played top level football in the 80s and 90s – is now a housing landlord whose property includes a nine-bedroom shared house in Sheffield.

It is there he is alleged to have attacked a student tenant in a row over cleaning.

A court heard that as student Robert Abbott tried to film the attack on his mobile phone, Williams – whose mother was a Nobel Peace Prize winner – is said to have raged: “Don’t you ring the police on me – don’t you know who I am?”

“Don’t you know who I am?!” Errrm, nope…

Williams is on trial at Sheffield Magistrates Court where he denies assault and harassing two tenants into giving up their home.

The 50-year-old, who runs property firm Elmopark Ltd with wife Claire, is said to have become aggressive after finding the student accommodation a mess two days before the last of his tenants was due to move out of the shared house.

He moved into the property business after a professional football career which began at Leeds United when he was a schoolboy.

The centre-forward had a brief stint with Sheffield United after signing in 1988, before playing for West Bromwich Albion and Rochdale in the 1990s and playing for Doncaster on loan.

The court heard the 6ft 3ins one-time Northern Ireland international grabbed 23-year-old Mr Abbott by the neck and pushed him against the sink before making threats.

Zaban Alam, prosecuting, said: “Two days before the tenancy was due to expire the defendant’s wife visited the house and asked Mr Abbott to tidy up before he left.

“He said that would not be a problem.

“Later that same day the defendant came to the house saying his partner had been in tears over the state of the house. He was behaving in an aggressive manner, telling Mr Abbott to get out by 10am the next day.”

Mr Abbott and his housemate Luke Bamforth worked through the night to clean up the property, including bedrooms which had been left untidy by other tenants.

But they said when Williams arrived the next morning he was still not satisfied.

Ms Alam said: “He arrived at around 8.20am and walked straight in. Mr Abbott told him he would not be moving out until his tenancy was up the next day, at which point Mr Williams became angered, grabbed him by the throat, and pushed him against the sink with one hand, jabbing him in the face with the other.”

Mr Abbott, now 25, told the court: “Throughout the incident I feared for my life.”

Police were called and both parties signed a restorative justice agreement.

Sheffield Council then launched an investigation.

Williams, of Sheffield, denies harassing Mr Abbott and Mr Bamforth into giving up occupation of a premises, and denies assaulting Mr Abbott.

The trial continues.