Cardiff fan Michael Bitti attacked for being ‘English’
Probation officer beat fellow supporter who was at match without colours to avoid trouble
Published: 26 March, 2010
by RÓISÍN GADELRAB
RABBIT breeder Michael Bitti and his son Luke – both Cardiff City season ticket holders – never wore their team’s colours to away matches, to avoid attracting trouble.
But when they followed their team to an Emirates Stadium match in February last year their lack of visible allegiance resulted in a vicious assault – by another Cardiff fan who thought they were English.
Mr Bitti’s attacker, probation officer Allan Robertson, 48, mistook him for an Arsenal fan, perhaps having seen him earlier in a pub with a cuddly Gunnersaurus Arsenal mascot bought for his daughter.
Mr Robertson was yesterday (Thursday) banned from attending football matches for three years, and given a nine-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of racially aggravated common assault, at Blackfriars Crown Court.
Mr Bitti, 42, had travelled to London from Caerphilly, Wales, with his parents Bruno, 70, and Sheila, 68.
He was confronted in the toilets of Phibbers pub, in Holloway Road, just before the FA cup tie where Arsenal won 4-0. Mr Robertson called him an “English ****” before grabbing him by the throat, hitting him in the face and pushing him against a sink.
Mr Bitti, whose exit was barred by “an associate” of Mr Robertson, was left with a bruised hip and head.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Bitti said: “What happened to me was horrendous. I was traumatised. I had my elderly parents with me. We haven’t been to any away games since. It’s destroyed it for us.
“Football violence hasn’t gone away. Ninety-nine per cent of Cardiff fans are law-abiding and enjoy football. But there’s this small group that cause absolute mayhem. A lot of these guys are in their 40s. They’ve made a career out of it.”
Sentencing Mr Robertson, who has resigned after 17 years as a probation officer, Judge Deva Pillay told him: “This was a cowardly attack against an innocent man... Not only have you lost your good standing in the community but you’ve lost your occupation and pension rights.”
He added: “I continue to fail to understand what madness possesses you and many others like you who normally lead respectable and responsible lives and descend into this kind of anarchic behaviour.”
Mr Bitti said: “It’s shocking to think that someone in that line of work can be doing what he’s doing.”
Following the attack, police tracked down Mr Robertson to the Lord Nelson pub in Holloway Road. Police surrounded the pub, sparking a riot by Cardiff fans, who smashed windows, ripped off railings and threw chairs.
Mr Bitti later spotted Mr Robertson among 7,000 Cardiff fans in the away end at the stadium. He was arrested at a pub frequented by Cardiff fans at the next home game.
Defending, Tracey Lloyd Nesling said Mr Robertson put his home up for sale following the seven-day trial. “This has had a considerable effect on him,” she told the court.
“He resigned from the probation service. In the present economic climate and the area where he lives and his age, it will be very difficult for him to find employment.”
She warned that, if Mr Robertson was sent to prison and his wife had to give up her NHS job to look after their 13-year-old daughter, “financial disaster will fall on the family”.
Mr Robertson was also ordered to serve 100 hours’ community service.
Islington Police’s Detective Constable Richard Clark, liaison officer for Arsenal, said: “If it wasn’t for the determination of the victim and football intelligence officers for both Arsenal FC and Cardiff City, Robertson would have escaped this conviction.”