It is rare that any footballing matter reaches the court, let alone result in a jail sentence.

Amateur footballer Mark Chapman went in studs-first on an opponent after the ball had gone out of play seconds from the end of the game, breaking his leg in two places.

And rejecting a comparison with the tackle which broke Arsenal player Aaron Ramsey's leg at the weekend, a Judge declared it was 'quite a different situation.'

Chapman (20) of Garrett Close, Long Lawford, Rugby, was jailed for six months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutor Iain Willis said the injury to victim Terry Johnson took place during a Rugby and District Sunday League game on October 10 last year.

Chapman was centre forward for the home team Long Lawford, while Mr Johnson played at left back for opponents Wheeltappers who were leading 3-1 with just 20 seconds to go.

Mr Willis said: "The ball was running out of play in the Wheeltappers' half, and Terry Johnson was shadowing it out of play as it cross the touchline."

The experienced referee Stuart Ayres said that during the game Chapman, who was chasing after Mr Johnson, had been criticised by his team-mates for a lack of effort.

"The referee said Terry Johnson was clearly slowing down as he followed the ball out.

"The defendant continued to close in and used a stamping motion with a raised right foot, with the studs showing, on the back and side of his right leg.

"The referee said it was a callous deliberate act with intent to cause injury to the player.

"Both fell to the floor and Terry Johnson was badly injured with fractures of the tibia and fibula, and he required surgery to reconstruct his leg."

He had to have a large incision to his leg, and will have to have a skin graft, and there is a chance that a steel rod inserted in his leg will have to remain there for life.

Mr Johnson later described the pain as 'traumatic,' and, as well as the realisation that he will not be able to play football again, he is self-employed and the work he has lost put 'a severe financial burden' on him and his family.


"My life has been thrown into turmoil because of a crazy challenge," he added.

Mr Willis said Chapman had no previous convictions, but had been disciplined a number of times for his behaviour on the football field for offences including dissent and unsporting behaviour – although not for violent conduct.

Lawrence Watts, defending, commented: "Injuries like this are sometimes caused more by the angle of the force applied than the degree of the force.

"The difficulty is that the ball was on its way out of play and, for whatever reason, he lunged in in a way which was inappropriate. We have seen it at the weekend on our televisions in the Arsenal match."

But Judge Robert Orme responded: "This is quite a different situation. It is a deliberate act, a premeditated act. That distinguishes it from the incident to which you refer between Stoke City and Arsenal.

"A football match gives no-one any excuse to carry out wanton violence. What I am prepared to accept is that it was a quite crazy and mad challenge committed on the spur of the moment."

Mr Watts handed in a number of references including one from the assistant head teach of Harris School who described Chapman as 'a clean sportsman of many talents' who did not have a violent or aggressive nature.

Of the offence, Mr Watts said: "While his action was deliberate, it was very much spur-of-the-moment. It is something which he bitterly regrets."

He said Chapman, who lives with his mother and was badly affected by the death of his father towards the end of last year, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps after leaving school, but was medically discharged and is now an apprentice engineer with Stagecoach earning £180 a week.

After adjourning to consider the case, Judge Orme read more of the ref's statement in which he said: "It was sickening to watch. It has no place on a football field. It was like nothing I have seen before."

The Judge told Chapman: "There was no attempt to obtain the ball in any way. The result of what you did was that Mr Johnson suffered a badly broken leg. It horrified those who saw it.

"I accept you showed very early remorse, and there is substantial mitigation which can be put forward for you.

"But I have also had to consider the position of the victim and your very deliberate criminal act. It seems to me, I am afraid, that I have to send you into custody."

Chapman cried uncontrollably and tried to hold on to the dock, asking to be allowed to say goodbye to his mother, who was in tears in the public gallery, as he was led away to the cells.