Reading that article, 20 months is nowhere near long enough, fucking coward.
Unfortunately, that's a very good sentence for that kind of crime. My Mrs is a probation officer and was shocked at how long he got... which I'd have said isn't long enough.
That's a despicably light sentence for a horrible cowardly crime 20 months for GBH is ludicrous He'll be out in barely a year
He plead guilty fairly early in the process so the judge is practically obliged to grant a 1/3 reduction in the prison term But 3 years is at the most lenient end of sentencing for GBH, there's no justification for less than that.
This sort of dimwitted sentencing tells selfish scumbags like Maddison that they'll get away with practically anything, reinforcing their invulnerable attitude.
Not to condone violent recrimination of course but the fact he got done for bashing a woman could make his all too brief incarceration especially painful Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke
Article in the Athletic on Marcus fall from grace:
Marcus Maddison: Had ‘magic’ talent to reach top – but now in jail for breaking woman’s jaw
Marcus Maddison was always considered the creative maverick, an unconventional character who did not conform with most team-mates in a Football League career that included spells with Peterborough United, Hull City, Charlton Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.
His retirement, at the age of 27, in 2021 did little to dispel those perceptions, but now, after being sentenced to 20 months in prison for a “horrific” attack on a 60-year-old woman, Maddison has seen an inglorious full stop added to the life he had hoped to revive only last summer.
The now 29-year-old cut a meek figure in the dock of Teesside Crown Court in the north-eastern city of Middlesbrough yesterday (Tuesday) morning.
A guilty plea had already been entered at an earlier hearing and all that remained was for Maddison to learn the length of time he would spend in prison. The sports bag he carried into courtroom eight, packed with clothes and belongings, underlined both his expectations and the inevitable.
Maddison, heavily tattooed and wearing a grey suit, spectacles and a gold earring, stood to hear the sentencing delivered by recorder Paul Reid, speaking via video link from York Crown Court, and was eventually taken away knowing his punishment might have been more severe.
The guilty plea, thus avoiding a trial by jury, meant Maddison avoided a custodial sentence of two and a half years and was instead imprisoned for 20 months for his actions in the early hours of September 22 last year.
Maddison did not contest the story of those events at the half-hour sentencing hearing. He had been drinking heavily with a friend at The Gate cocktail bar in Darlington, a half-hour drive from Middlesbrough, where he was attempting to resume his playing career with the town’s National League North (the sixth-tier of English football) club.
Their night had ended at a kebab shop and Maddison soon became involved in a heated altercation with two women.
Maddison, it was heard, told one of them: “Fuck off. Don’t come near me, you fat slag.” One of the women responded by saying: “You fucking wait,” to which he replied: “You won’t fucking catch me.”
Maddison was urged by his friend to return home, but the one-time Newcastle United academy player then threw his chips at the women, a mother and daughter pair, falling over in the process. Upon regaining his feet, he threw a single punch that hit the 60-year-old with “devastating force”.
An oversized ring, worn by Maddison on his right hand that connected with the victim, was likened to a knuckle duster and therefore considered a weapon in the attack.
A “pop” was heard by Maddison’s friend after the blow landed. Reid added that “two other people in the vicinity had said, ‘What the fuck was that (noise)?’.”
A victim statement, read out in court, heard the woman suffered a broken jaw in “multiple places” and had been left with potentially lasting damage, with pain still felt in her teeth and gums. She was also said to have suffered from anxiety, PTSD and headaches after an attack that saw police find the victim lying in a pool of blood in Duke Street, Darlington, at 3.45am.
Maddison had fled the scene by that point and, on September 25, gave a no-comment interview to police investigating the attack. Only five days later, when voluntarily handing himself in to the police, did he accept responsibility.
Maddison would enter a guilty plea for the charge of grievous bodily harm without intent during a hearing at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on June 20.
By that time, the midfielder’s short-lived attempts to resume his playing career were effectively over. Darlington manager Alun Armstrong had called the signing of Maddison a “no-brainer” given his pedigree at a higher level, but within three months of his arrival, the decision had been made to terminate the player’s contract by mutual consent.
“Darlington FC is a fan-owned club and has a zero tolerance towards discrimination, violence or abusive behaviour,” said a club statement last month.
Maddison does not expect to play professional football again.
During the defence’s statements, delivered by his barrister, Tabitha Buck, it was revealed the player intends to become a tattoo artist and has demonstrated his remorse by temporarily cutting ties with his four-year-old daughter while serving his custodial sentence. The court was also told that Maddison had since given up drinking alcohol, and that the attack ought to be considered to be “wholly out of character”.
That character, though, has been a difficult one to unpick.
People who worked with Maddison during his playing days considered him to be complex and awkward to manage. His professionalism, or lack of it, was seen to be the greatest obstacle preventing him from climbing up the football ladder following his release by Newcastle United, a Premier League club, at age 18.
Maddison’s best days undoubtedly came at Peterborough United, a third-tier club, who he joined from non-League Gateshead in 2014. It was there he would help inspire the goalscoring exploits of centre-forwards including Jack Marriott and Ivan Toney and, at one point, he amassed the most assists of any player in the top four divisions of English football across a five-year period that spanned 2014 to 2019.
“He is sublimely talented,” said his former chairman at Peterborough, Darragh MacAnthony. “He could play as high as he wants, I’ve always said that, but that’s down to the player.
“That’s a player who will look back on his career in years to come and regret the fact he didn’t sprinkle his magic at the top, but he has the ability, he has the talent.”
Grant McCann, who managed him at both Peterborough and second-tier Hull, called Maddison the “best player in League One on his day”.
Others saw it, too.
Charlton, then of the Championship, were prepared to pay up to £2million (now $2.54m) to sign Maddison in January 2020, only for the player to reject the move. With only half a year left on his Peterborough contract, he eventually joined Hull that same month on loan for a six-figure sum.
Maddison eventually joined Charlton as a free agent in October 2020, following their relegation to League One, calling it a “fresh start”. But it did not last. By the January of that season, he had been loaned to Bolton Wanderers in League Two and within three months he had quit the game altogether.
Maddison chose to retire at half-time of a home win over Harrogate Town that April. The forward had been withdrawn and felt unable to continue an unhappy loan spell. The deal was terminated in the days that followed, with Maddison citing his mental health.
“The football industry has eventually broke me,” Maddison later wrote on Instagram. He was only 27.
Ten months on, in February of last year, Maddison had a change of heart.
Time spent pursuing an interest in gaming had not provided enough fulfilment — or financial comfort — and following a short spell with Spalding United, a part-time club in the Northern Premier League (the domestic game’s seventh and eighth tiers), he told the world of his ambitions to resume his playing career in the 2022-23 season.
That, however, needed help.
A GoFundMe page was set up with the hope of raising £3,000 for knee surgery. “Without it, I will never run again never mind play football,” he wrote. Within days, Maddison had raised £3,655 — a sum that included a £1,000 donation from former Peterborough team-mate Michael Doughty and a series of smaller amounts from supporters.
Successful surgery enabled Maddison to join Darlington at the start of last season but, within six weeks of making his debut in the National League North, a night out where he drank to excess ended with the attack that has led him to prison.
Maddison attempted to offer mitigation by saying his life as a professional footballer had seen him previously become the victim of violence during nights out and that an injury prevented him running away from that altercation in Darlington. “She either hit me or I hit her,” Maddison had said. “I had no other option.”
Reid reminded the defendant that he had the option of walking away, as he was encouraged to do by his friend.
Maddison, who was supported in court by his partner, told reporters outside before his sentencing that he was “devastated” by what he had done, but that his actions had consequences.
“Public violence like this is so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can possibly be justified,” said Reid, who called Maddison’s actions “egregious violence”.
Maddison once held a reputation as the most creative player in English football’s lower leagues, but, disgraced and imprisoned, he now has an altogether different one: of a talent irretrievably squandered.
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
part joke comment/part serious question
There is no pass for breaking a 60 year old woman's jaw
"Charlton, then of the Championship, were prepared to pay up to £2million (now $2.54m) to sign Maddison in January 2020, only for the player to reject the move."
"Charlton, then of the Championship, were prepared to pay up to £2million (now $2.54m) to sign Maddison in January 2020, only for the player to reject the move."
Really?
Allegedly that's what Southall bid, albeit it was presumably all for show given we were under an embargo.
"Charlton, then of the Championship, were prepared to pay up to £2million (now $2.54m) to sign Maddison in January 2020, only for the player to reject the move."
Really?
Allegedly that's what Southall bid, albeit it was presumably all for show given we were under an embargo.
Damn, he wanted that dinner with McAnthony really badly. It was all a reality show to look credible.
"Charlton, then of the Championship, were prepared to pay up to £2million (now $2.54m) to sign Maddison in January 2020, only for the player to reject the move."
Really?
He was out of contract that summer and Peterboro wanted some money for him before he walked away on a free transfer.
Allegedly Southall was trying to buy Ivan Toney only to be told that we couldn't afford him, but they had this other player up for sale...
Maddison wasn't interested in moving to Charlton as he wanted to return to the north-east. He wouldn't even talk to us. Eventually Darragh MacAnthony persuaded him to at least have a chat with Lee Bowyer and Steve Gallen who hiked up to Peterborough after training only to be told that he still wasn't interested. Eventually he went to Hull.
What no-one knew was that we were under a transfer embargo but I think it might have been a one in/one out embargo rather than the full version? In which case we could have signed him but would have had to offload a player first and there were rumours about Lyle Taylor moving on - he had rejected a new contract, possibly because Southall offered him less money than he was currently on - at least that was the rumour.
At Hull Maddison did what Chris Solly and Lyle Taylor did - and refused to play after the season was suspended in lockdown.
As for his prison sentence - the maximum tariff is five years for GBH for a section 20 offence (Offences Against the Person Act 1861). To get 20 months after pleading guilty is just about the most a judge could impose and stay within the sentence guiding advice.
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
part joke comment/part serious question
There is no pass for breaking a 60 year old woman's jaw
Love these type of comments when someone is sent down. I'm sure Marcus won't be the only person in his cell block to have done something utterly dispicable! He may be the most high profile though, but will be in good company...
Edit...not condoning his behaviour btw obviously, just questioning the notion that his fellow prisoners will take some retribution when a fair few of them are probably in for something similar.
That's a despicably light sentence for a horrible cowardly crime 20 months for GBH is ludicrous He'll be out in barely a year
He plead guilty fairly early in the process so the judge is practically obliged to grant a 1/3 reduction in the prison term But 3 years is at the most lenient end of sentencing for GBH, there's no justification for less than that.
This sort of dimwitted sentencing tells selfish scumbags like Maddison that they'll get away with practically anything, reinforcing their invulnerable attitude.
Not to condone violent recrimination of course but the fact he got done for bashing a woman could make his all too brief incarceration especially painful Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke
I think there's a difference between GBH (which Maddison was charged with) and GBH with intent. GBH with intent is the more serious offence, and carries a maximum sentence of life. GBH has a maximum sentence of 5 years. The lowest end of the range for GBH is a community order, whereas it's 2 years for GBH with intent. From the sentencing guidelines:
"Factors increasing the severity of the sentence may include:
use of a weapon
targeting a vulnerable victim
the assault was committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs
the assault involved an abuse of power or took advantage of a position of trust
Factors decreasing the severity of the sentence may include:
the assault consisted only of a single blow
the assault was an isolated incident
the offender:
has shown remorse
is of good character
has a serious medical condition
lacks maturity, or has a mental disorder or learning disability
is the sole or primary carer for dependent relatives
If the defendant pleads guilty, they will receive a reduced sentence."
Some of the factors increasing the severity of the sentence applied in Maddison's case, but so did many of the factors decreasing the severity. Plus the reduced sentence for the guilty plea, as you say.
Not in any way apologising for what is a horrible attack on a 60 year old woman, but it is sad to see someone who had the talent to make a real mark in life throw that talent away and then go to prison.
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
part joke comment/part serious question
There is no pass for breaking a 60 year old woman's jaw
Love these type of comments when someone is sent down. I'm sure Marcus won't be the only person in his cell block to have done something utterly dispicable! He may be the most high profile though, but will be in good company...
Edit...not condoning his behaviour btw obviously, just questioning the notion that his fellow prisoners will take some retribution when a fair few of them are probably in for something similar.
His type of crime is frowned upon in the slammer. Nonces and bent plod I gather are targets as well.
I know there is (or was) a prison officer who posted on here. Based on watching vinny Jones in mean machine (think that's what it was called), will he get an easy ride if he captains the prison football team?
part joke comment/part serious question
There is no pass for breaking a 60 year old woman's jaw
Love these type of comments when someone is sent down. I'm sure Marcus won't be the only person in his cell block to have done something utterly dispicable! He may be the most high profile though, but will be in good company...
Edit...not condoning his behaviour btw obviously, just questioning the notion that his fellow prisoners will take some retribution when a fair few of them are probably in for something similar.
His type of crime is frowned upon in the slammer. Nonces and bent plod I gather are targets as well.
I do not speak from experience, please note.
But the lowest of the low are fellas who don't get their round in, apparently. So I understand.
@AddickUpNorth was talking about leaving the Prison Service and doing something else but stopped posting around the same time as far as I remember so not sure whether he did or not.
Comments
20 months for GBH is ludicrous
He'll be out in barely a year
He plead guilty fairly early in the process so the judge is practically obliged to grant a 1/3 reduction in the prison term
But 3 years is at the most lenient end of sentencing for GBH, there's no justification for less than that.
This sort of dimwitted sentencing tells selfish scumbags like Maddison that they'll get away with practically anything, reinforcing their invulnerable attitude.
Not to condone violent recrimination of course but the fact he got done for bashing a woman could make his all too brief incarceration especially painful
Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke
Marcus Maddison: Had ‘magic’ talent to reach top – but now in jail for breaking woman’s jaw
Marcus Maddison was always considered the creative maverick, an unconventional character who did not conform with most team-mates in a Football League career that included spells with Peterborough United, Hull City, Charlton Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.
His retirement, at the age of 27, in 2021 did little to dispel those perceptions, but now, after being sentenced to 20 months in prison for a “horrific” attack on a 60-year-old woman, Maddison has seen an inglorious full stop added to the life he had hoped to revive only last summer.
The now 29-year-old cut a meek figure in the dock of Teesside Crown Court in the north-eastern city of Middlesbrough yesterday (Tuesday) morning.
A guilty plea had already been entered at an earlier hearing and all that remained was for Maddison to learn the length of time he would spend in prison. The sports bag he carried into courtroom eight, packed with clothes and belongings, underlined both his expectations and the inevitable.
Maddison, heavily tattooed and wearing a grey suit, spectacles and a gold earring, stood to hear the sentencing delivered by recorder Paul Reid, speaking via video link from York Crown Court, and was eventually taken away knowing his punishment might have been more severe.
The guilty plea, thus avoiding a trial by jury, meant Maddison avoided a custodial sentence of two and a half years and was instead imprisoned for 20 months for his actions in the early hours of September 22 last year.
Maddison did not contest the story of those events at the half-hour sentencing hearing. He had been drinking heavily with a friend at The Gate cocktail bar in Darlington, a half-hour drive from Middlesbrough, where he was attempting to resume his playing career with the town’s National League North (the sixth-tier of English football) club.
Their night had ended at a kebab shop and Maddison soon became involved in a heated altercation with two women.
Maddison, it was heard, told one of them: “Fuck off. Don’t come near me, you fat slag.” One of the women responded by saying: “You fucking wait,” to which he replied: “You won’t fucking catch me.”
Maddison was urged by his friend to return home, but the one-time Newcastle United academy player then threw his chips at the women, a mother and daughter pair, falling over in the process. Upon regaining his feet, he threw a single punch that hit the 60-year-old with “devastating force”.
An oversized ring, worn by Maddison on his right hand that connected with the victim, was likened to a knuckle duster and therefore considered a weapon in the attack.
A “pop” was heard by Maddison’s friend after the blow landed. Reid added that “two other people in the vicinity had said, ‘What the fuck was that (noise)?’.”
A victim statement, read out in court, heard the woman suffered a broken jaw in “multiple places” and had been left with potentially lasting damage, with pain still felt in her teeth and gums. She was also said to have suffered from anxiety, PTSD and headaches after an attack that saw police find the victim lying in a pool of blood in Duke Street, Darlington, at 3.45am.
Maddison had fled the scene by that point and, on September 25, gave a no-comment interview to police investigating the attack. Only five days later, when voluntarily handing himself in to the police, did he accept responsibility.
Maddison would enter a guilty plea for the charge of grievous bodily harm without intent during a hearing at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on June 20.
By that time, the midfielder’s short-lived attempts to resume his playing career were effectively over. Darlington manager Alun Armstrong had called the signing of Maddison a “no-brainer” given his pedigree at a higher level, but within three months of his arrival, the decision had been made to terminate the player’s contract by mutual consent.
“Darlington FC is a fan-owned club and has a zero tolerance towards discrimination, violence or abusive behaviour,” said a club statement last month.
Maddison does not expect to play professional football again.
During the defence’s statements, delivered by his barrister, Tabitha Buck, it was revealed the player intends to become a tattoo artist and has demonstrated his remorse by temporarily cutting ties with his four-year-old daughter while serving his custodial sentence. The court was also told that Maddison had since given up drinking alcohol, and that the attack ought to be considered to be “wholly out of character”.
That character, though, has been a difficult one to unpick.
People who worked with Maddison during his playing days considered him to be complex and awkward to manage. His professionalism, or lack of it, was seen to be the greatest obstacle preventing him from climbing up the football ladder following his release by Newcastle United, a Premier League club, at age 18.
Maddison’s best days undoubtedly came at Peterborough United, a third-tier club, who he joined from non-League Gateshead in 2014. It was there he would help inspire the goalscoring exploits of centre-forwards including Jack Marriott and Ivan Toney and, at one point, he amassed the most assists of any player in the top four divisions of English football across a five-year period that spanned 2014 to 2019.
“He is sublimely talented,” said his former chairman at Peterborough, Darragh MacAnthony. “He could play as high as he wants, I’ve always said that, but that’s down to the player.
“That’s a player who will look back on his career in years to come and regret the fact he didn’t sprinkle his magic at the top, but he has the ability, he has the talent.”
Grant McCann, who managed him at both Peterborough and second-tier Hull, called Maddison the “best player in League One on his day”.
Others saw it, too.
Charlton, then of the Championship, were prepared to pay up to £2million (now $2.54m) to sign Maddison in January 2020, only for the player to reject the move. With only half a year left on his Peterborough contract, he eventually joined Hull that same month on loan for a six-figure sum.
Maddison eventually joined Charlton as a free agent in October 2020, following their relegation to League One, calling it a “fresh start”. But it did not last. By the January of that season, he had been loaned to Bolton Wanderers in League Two and within three months he had quit the game altogether.
Maddison chose to retire at half-time of a home win over Harrogate Town that April. The forward had been withdrawn and felt unable to continue an unhappy loan spell. The deal was terminated in the days that followed, with Maddison citing his mental health.
“The football industry has eventually broke me,” Maddison later wrote on Instagram. He was only 27.
Ten months on, in February of last year, Maddison had a change of heart.
Time spent pursuing an interest in gaming had not provided enough fulfilment — or financial comfort — and following a short spell with Spalding United, a part-time club in the Northern Premier League (the domestic game’s seventh and eighth tiers), he told the world of his ambitions to resume his playing career in the 2022-23 season.
That, however, needed help.
A GoFundMe page was set up with the hope of raising £3,000 for knee surgery. “Without it, I will never run again never mind play football,” he wrote. Within days, Maddison had raised £3,655 — a sum that included a £1,000 donation from former Peterborough team-mate Michael Doughty and a series of smaller amounts from supporters.
Successful surgery enabled Maddison to join Darlington at the start of last season but, within six weeks of making his debut in the National League North, a night out where he drank to excess ended with the attack that has led him to prison.
Maddison attempted to offer mitigation by saying his life as a professional footballer had seen him previously become the victim of violence during nights out and that an injury prevented him running away from that altercation in Darlington. “She either hit me or I hit her,” Maddison had said. “I had no other option.”
Reid reminded the defendant that he had the option of walking away, as he was encouraged to do by his friend.
Maddison, who was supported in court by his partner, told reporters outside before his sentencing that he was “devastated” by what he had done, but that his actions had consequences.
“Public violence like this is so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can possibly be justified,” said Reid, who called Maddison’s actions “egregious violence”.
Maddison once held a reputation as the most creative player in English football’s lower leagues, but, disgraced and imprisoned, he now has an altogether different one: of a talent irretrievably squandered.
part joke comment/part serious question
20 months is an outrageous sentence but unfortunately, not surprising.
It should have been at minimum 4 years, but undoubtedly he will be out after a year or so depending on behaviour.
No doubt will then get a cushty little job as a tattoo artist when he's out and move away from England where he can have his 10th 'Fresh start'
Really?
Allegedly Southall was trying to buy Ivan Toney only to be told that we couldn't afford him, but they had this other player up for sale...
Maddison wasn't interested in moving to Charlton as he wanted to return to the north-east. He wouldn't even talk to us. Eventually Darragh MacAnthony persuaded him to at least have a chat with Lee Bowyer and Steve Gallen who hiked up to Peterborough after training only to be told that he still wasn't interested. Eventually he went to Hull.
What no-one knew was that we were under a transfer embargo but I think it might have been a one in/one out embargo rather than the full version? In which case we could have signed him but would have had to offload a player first and there were rumours about Lyle Taylor moving on - he had rejected a new contract, possibly because Southall offered him less money than he was currently on - at least that was the rumour.
At Hull Maddison did what Chris Solly and Lyle Taylor did - and refused to play after the season was suspended in lockdown.
As for his prison sentence - the maximum tariff is five years for GBH for a section 20 offence (Offences Against the Person Act 1861). To get 20 months after pleading guilty is just about the most a judge could impose and stay within the sentence guiding advice.
For anyone interested:
Inflicting grievous bodily harm/ Unlawful wounding/ Racially or religiously aggravated GBH/ Unlawful wounding – Sentencing (sentencingcouncil.org.uk)
Edit...not condoning his behaviour btw obviously, just questioning the notion that his fellow prisoners will take some retribution when a fair few of them are probably in for something similar.
"Factors increasing the severity of the sentence may include:
Factors decreasing the severity of the sentence may include:
If the defendant pleads guilty, they will receive a reduced sentence."
He's not posted for a long time.
I do not speak from experience, please note.