Footballer Joe Mattock to face trial on four assault charges

A professional footballer is to stand trial over allegations that he assaulted two men and two women during a nightclub fracas.

West Bromwich Albion player Joe Mattock, 19, denied three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of assault by beating at Leicester Crown Court today.

The former Leicester City defender also denied a charge of doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice by contacting a witness by phone and offering to pay money to one of the alleged victims.

The charges relate to an alleged incident at the Liquid Envy nightclub in Church Gate, Leicester, on August 30, 2009.

Mattock, of Grove Road, Leicester, who was wearing a white shirt, no tie and a dark grey suit, spoke only to confirm his name and plead not guilty to all charges.

He was granted unconditional bail until a trial at Leicester Crown Court on August 2.

Leicester-born Mattock, who has been capped five times by England Under-21s, joined Albion for an undisclosed fee in August 2009.