Soccer: Duberry admits telling truth to save himself
Leeds United defender Michael Duberry has admitted he is telling the truth to save himself from a conspiracy charge.
Duberry, 25, told the jury at Hull Crown Court, that he is prepared to sacrifice his popularity at the club in order to avoid a possible jail sentence.
Duberry added that he will probably come out of the case looking bad because it could be said he had sold out his friend to save himself.
"I might not be liked at Leeds United, but in saving myself that's what I had to do," he said.
Duberry, who is accused of helping to cover up the alleged involvement of Woodgate, team-mate Lee Bowyer and two other men in the brutal attack on student Sarfraz Najeib, said he had told his two teammates and manager David O'Leary that he was going to "tell the truth" in court.
Asked whether he had spoken to Mr O'Leary before deciding that he would tell the court that Woodgate had told him he had been in a fight with Asians, Duberry said: "I might have done, yes, definitely. That was, I think, last week. I might have mentioned what my decision might be."
Mr Campbell asked: "And what would you have said to him?" Duberry replied: "I said I would tell the truth. I didn't go into the contents of what I would say but I would tell it how it is, which is the truth."
England international Woodgate, 21, of Middlesbrough, midfielder Bowyer, 24, of Leeds, Neale Caveney and Paul Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Najeib, 20. They also deny affray.
Duberry, Woodgate, Clifford and Caveney also deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after the attack.
Mr Najeib, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, suffered serious injuries, including a broken leg and fractured cheekbone, in the attack in Leeds city centre last January.
