{"id":532797,"date":"2026-04-15T19:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532797\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T19:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:56:09","slug":"a-level-of-violence-never-witnessed-before-at-fc-united-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532797\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘level of violence never witnessed before’ at FC United match"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mass brawl<\/a> at an FC United match<\/a> was sparked when a rival fan made a taunt about the Munich air disaster, a court heard. Dozens of people were caught on CCTV fighting in the Main Stand bar at the club’s Broadhurst Park home ground following a Northern Premier League match against Workington in March 2024.<\/p>\n

One FC United staff member said he had ‘never witnessed this level of violence’ at the club before. On Wednesday (April 15), three men from Workington, Cumbria – father and son Paul and Bradley Newell and John Berwick – were sentenced for their role in the melee.<\/p>\n

Phillip Hall, prosecuting, said the ‘ugly looking incident’ was sparked by a ‘Workington supporter making reference to Munich’. He told the court none of the three defendants were ‘instigators’ of the violence, but all got caught up in it.<\/p>\n

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In footage of the fight played at Manchester Crown Court<\/a>, all three could be seen throwing punches during the disturbance. Berwick was said to have ‘punched and kicked’ a man who he was lying on the floor.<\/p>\n

Following the fight, police made a number of public appeals for information and released CCTV stills of 13 men they wanted like to speak to as part of their investigation.<\/p>\n

Around 20 to 30 others seen on the CCTV in the melee have never been charged, the court was told. Ross McQuillan-Johnson, defending, said Paul Newell, Bradley Newell and Berwick, all ‘wanted to take responsibility for their actions’.<\/p>\n

He said Berwick, who works at an engineering company, was his family’s ‘primary bread winner’ and that his partner was ‘heavily pregnant’. Mr Hall said the family would be at risk of losing their house and car if Berwick, who has one previous conviction for assault, were to be imprisoned.<\/p>\n

Paul Newell, the court heard, was a project manager and an amateur football referee with no previous convictions. Mr Hall said: “He is a man who contributes to his community, a man who is well thought of. Clearly very different to how he has shown himself in the footage.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Bradley Newell, Mr Hall said, was was an electrical engineer who also has no previous convictions. He is due to get married in three weeks, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Mr Hall said he said shown a ‘significant degree of remorse’ for his ‘reckless and stupid actions’. Recorder Mark Ford KC said that he accepted all three defendants’ actions were ‘broadly speaking out of the character’, that there was ‘no suggestion you were drunk’ and that the brawl was over ‘fairly quickly’.<\/p>\n

All three men pleaded guilty to violent disorder at an earlier hearing. Berwick, 39, of The Meadows, Workington, was given a 12 month community order, ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work and 15 days rehab activity.<\/p>\n

Paul Newell, 53, of Guard Street, Workington, was given a two year conditional discharge. Bradly Newell, 28, of Gray Street, Working, was given 80 hours unpaid work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mass brawl at an FC United match was sparked when a rival fan made a taunt about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1343,924,184337,218,39455,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-532797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-fc-united","tag-football","tag-moston","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}