St Mirren defender cleared of assault charge in Edinburgh

St Mirren’s central defender Darren McGregor has been cleared of a charge of assault after his alleged victim failed to appear in court to give evidence.

Twenty-six year old McGregor, who lives in Edinburgh, had always denied assaulting Chiedozi Okere at the Base Nightclub in the city’s Cowgate by punching him on the face, causing him to fall to the ground to his in jury on July 3 last year. McGregor had claimed self-defence.

His trial was due to go ahead in Edinburgh Sheriff Court today, but Fiscal Depute Anna Murphy had to tell Sheriff Derrick McIntyre that Mr Okere had not turned up. She asked for an adjournment of the trial to a later date.

This was opposed by defence solicitor, Nigel Bruce, who told the Sheriff that his client had no previous convictions and that the complainer had been reported to the Procurator Fiscal’s office for assaulting the footballer prior to the alleged assault on him.

The Crown, he added, had not fulfilled their duty by not disclosing this to the defence. He pointed out that there were five defence witnesses, all of whom were present in court, having taken a day off work.

The court was told that a friend of Mr Okere, who was waiting in the witness room, said he had not seen him for “some time”.

Mr Bruce called on Sheriff McIntyre to accept McGregor’s plea of Not Guilty and dismiss the case, which he did.

MCGregor signed for St Mirren in June 2010 from Cowdenbeath, but in August of last year damaged a cruciate ligament during a game against Dundee United and has been ruled out until the end of the season.

Outside the court, McGregor said he was: “Just relieved the matter was over. Along with the injury and this, it has been a dark cloud hanging over me since July of last year”.