Dog walker believed he was going to die during Welsh horse trainer attack, jury told

A dog walker has told a jury how he believed he was going to die during an alleged attack by a champion horse trainer who wrongly believed he was a rural criminal.

Richard Evan Rhys Williams, known as Evan Williams, 54, denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Martin Dandridge, 72, in the rural village of Llancarfan in South Wales on December 4 2024.

Williams is alleged to have beaten Mr Dandridge with a hockey stick, breaking his left arm.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Mr Dandridge and his wife were staying at a holiday cottage near Evan Williams Racing, the racehorse training centre in the Vale of Glamorgan where Williams works and lives.

Mr Dandridge told a jury of seven women and five men he had taken his daughter’s cockerpoo dog, Gulliver, out for a walk in a paddock that was part of the stables at about 9.30pm.

He was wearing a head torch and had placed a light on the dog as it was dark.

The jury heard Williams’ family spotted the lights on their land and believed Mr Dandridge was lamping, where people use bright lights to find animals such as rabbits and foxes, often with a dog.

Williams, accompanied by jockey Conor Ring, set off in a 4×4 vehicle towards Mr Dandridge – passing two police officers, who were on a rural crime patrol nearby, on the way.

Giving evidence, Mr Dandridge said he had been staying in the cottage with his wife to be near to their daughter in Cardiff who had recently had a baby.

He said he had taken Gulliver for his late night walk and gone into a paddock, which had open gates and no signage, when he saw two vehicles approaching him – with Williams getting out of one.

Mr Dandridge, from Swindon, said Williams came towards him in a “threatening” manner while loudly asking him “who are you, what are you doing?”

“He swung the hockey stick at me violently,” he told the jury.

“It was painful. I thought, ‘what’s going on, why am I being attacked?’ He swung and hit me on my right leg.

“He was saying, ‘what are you doing, what are you doing on my land?’ I said, ‘I’m staying in the cottage, I’m walking my dog’. As he continued, I stopped saying that and I said, ‘stop, stop’. I felt in peril.

“I couldn’t stand after the blow to my leg. There was a strange moment, just for a moment, everything became very peaceful in my head and I thought, ‘I’m going to die here and there’s nothing I can do’.

“The next thing I clearly remember is seeing the hockey stick raised, being brought down on me and I blocked it with my arm across my face and it hit my arm violently, with force.”

He described how another person, previously said to be Mr Ring, shouted “that’s enough” and ushered Williams away from him.

Fractures

The police officers who had passed Williams then attended the scene and took Mr Dandridge to hospital, where he was found to have two fractures to his left forearm.

Mr Dandridge made a formal complaint about Williams the following day and the trainer was arrested.

During police interview, Williams insisted he did not assault Mr Dandridge and did not have a hockey stick.

He insisted Mr Dandridge had been pulled down a drainage hole by his dog, which he believed had caused his injuries.

During cross examination by David Elias KC, representing Williams, Mr Dandridge denied this had happened.

Prosecuting, William Bebb told the jury Williams had passed police in his car as he headed to confront Mr Dandridge.

“The defendant told the police officers there were lampers in the field and they were going to challenge them,” he said.

“He thought there were rural criminals trespassing on his land. Mr Dandridge noticed vehicles arriving at the entrance of the paddock.

“Mr Dandridge saw an individual get out of one of the vehicles and approach him aggressively, practically charging towards him, shouting words to the effect of, ‘who are you and what are you doing?’

“Evan Williams was carrying with him a weapon, a hockey stick.”

Trespassing

Mr Bebb told the jury that Williams was “looking to impart his own justice on someone who he thought was trespassing on his land”.

“He began raining blows on Mr Dandridge,” he said. “Mr Dandridge was in complete shock.”

Mr Bebb said one police officer saw Williams “strike Mr Dandridge with an object to his body, making a thudding sound”, while the second did not see any attack but noted he was carrying a hockey stick.

“The penny dropped that he wasn’t a criminal at all but a man innocently walking his dog in the area,” he added.

Williams denies a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The trial, expected to last for four days, continues.