Trainer Evan Williams has been sentenced to three years in prison for causing grievous bodily harm with intent to injure.
Williams attacked 71-year-old Martin Dandridge in December 2024 as he believed him to be a “lamper” on his property. A lamper is a poacher who uses a torch to seek out animals on private land. Williams had claimed that past experiences of such poachers had caused him to behave erratically.
Dandridge claimed Williams beat him with a hockey stick for 60 seconds. In the assault, he sustained a broken arm among his injuries.
Williams was found guilty of the assault last month. He was then sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday afternoon, with three years likely to entail an 18-mont stay in prison before a similar length of community work.
The future of the Williams training operation is now in doubt. Williams’ wife Cath took over the license for the remainder of the jumps season. She sent out a winner at the Cheltenham Festival when Ask Brewster landed the Kim Muir Handicap Chase. However, an appeal to the court suggested it was “not viable” for her to continue running the operation.
Three-year sentence based on “appalling offence”
Angharad Price was the Recorder responsible for sentencing Williams. The BBC report of the sentencing states that she recognised Williams’ “heightened fear and vigilance” due to past experiences with lampers on his property.
Nevertheless, the nature of Williams’ attack and the injuries sustained by his victim provided little option but to hand out a prison sentence.
“This is an appalling offence. You had a choice that night, you could have waited and let the police deal with the situation but instead you urgently raced to the paddock to deal with it yourself.
“It is never acceptable to take the law into your own hands.”
Outlining the harshness of such a sentence, David Elias KC, defending Williams, pled: “A prison sentence will not just impact immediate family but also impact employees, suppliers, and the people who own the horses he trains”.
Elias also said of Williams that he has “exemplary character and 570 character references have been received since his conviction”.
Williams is a former Welsh Grand National winning trainer in his home country. Secret Reprieve won the Chepstow race in 2020, while he also trained a horse to finish in the top four of Aintree’s Grand National in five straight years without winning between 2009-2013. A trainer since 2003, the future of racing operation under the Williams name is now uncertain.