A drunk football fan “deliberately” climbed on to a roof during an Ipswich Town FA cup match and fell on two supporters sitting below, it has been alleged.
Sixty-two-year-old John Ryan was sitting with Maidstone United supporters in allocated seating on the top tier of the Cobbold stand in the Portman Road stadium when he was captured on CCTV getting out of his seat after his team scored and making his way on to the shallow roof above the area where home supporters were sitting. He had then rolled down the roof and landed on a woman and her partner who were “unprepared for the weight of a grown man falling on them", said Simon Gladwell, prosecuting.
She suffered internal bruising and a trapped nerve while her partner suffered a sore shoulder.
“ When you see CCTV of the incident you will see he deliberately threw himself off the roof to fall down,” said Mr Gladwell.
“It was a deliberate action and at the very least he was reckless as to whether injury would be caused,” he claimed.
Ipswich Crown Court heard that more than 4,000 Maidstone supporters had travelled to Ipswich for the game in January 2024. Towards the end of the first half Maidstone scored and during the celebrations Ryan, who he said was intoxicated , was seen to go on to the roof and fall down, said Mr Gladwell.
Ryan was taken away by stewards and checked over but didn’t require any treatment.
After giving his details he was ejected from the stadium and a police investigation was started after CCTV and footage on TikTok was reviewed.
Mr Gladwell said two other Maidstone supporters had tried to get on the roof but had been stopped.
After Ryan’s arrest he said he was an avid Maidstone supporter and had travelled to the game on a coach with his son and two friends.
He had five cans of Fosters beer which he had bought from an off-licence and had been sitting with fellow supporters three or four rows back from the front of the tier.
He said that when Maidstone scored he found himself going towards the front of the tier and wasn’t sure if he was pushed.
He said the wall at the front of the tier was knee level and he couldn’t stop himself falling over the edge on to the people below. He denied intending to hurt anyone and said he didn’t think his actions were reckless. Ryan, of Railway Street, Chatham, denies assault causing actual bodily harm to the woman and an alternative less serious of assault by beating.
He also denies assaulting her partner by beating .
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