Champion trainer Evan Williams has been sentenced to three years in prison for attacking a 72-year-old dog walker with a hockey stick on his land in Llancarfan, south Wales. Martin Dandridge suffered a fractured arm and other injuries in the assault on December 21, 2024.
Williams, 55, denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent but was convicted by a unanimous jury after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court in March. Sentencing him on Tuesday, Recorder Angharad Price described the attack as “appalling” and noted that Dandridge was “still living with the impact of your actions on that day 16 months ago.”
The judge told Williams he had a choice to confront Dandridge or wait for police, and that “it is never acceptable to take the law into your own hands.” She acknowledged that Williams had been threatened with a shotgun by poachers six weeks earlier, but that “protection should not have come at Mr Dandridge’s cost.”
Williams’s barrister, David Elias KC, said the trainer’s business is now in doubt: “If he isn’t there, there is no business.” The multiple Grade One-winning trainer had success at the Cheltenham Festival and trained Secret Reprieve to win the 2020 Welsh Grand National. The licence has been transferred to his wife, Cath.
