England locker room intruder to appear in court Sunday to face trespass charges

England locker room intruder charged with trespass

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — An England fan who walked into the national team’s locker room and confronted David Beckham after a tie with Alergia has been released on bail and ordered to appear in a Cape Town court Monday.

Magistrate Jahstree Steyn said the fan, Pavlos Joseph, was barred from attending other World Cup matches until a full ruling has been delivered in his case. He was released Sunday on 500 rand ($67) bail.

“We got to be back here tomorrow. We are going to discuss the case, what they are trying to make us plead,” said Leo Andrews, who identified himself as Joseph’s cousin. “He is well upset now.”

Moments later, Joseph left court and held a brown sweater over his face as he was surrounded by cameramen and photographers. He departed in a car with Andrews.

South African police had arrested Joseph on Sunday morning at his hotel near Cape Town.

Joseph, who lives in south London, had earlier given an interview to a British newspaper saying he was the intruder and that he’d accidentally walked into the locker room.

Britain’s Sunday Mirror newspaper printed an interview in which Joseph said he was directed to the locker room after Friday’s 0-0 draw at Green Point Stadium when he asked a security guard where he could find a toilet.

A 32-year-old mortgage adviser, Joseph reportedly walked unchallenged into the dressing room and immediately found himself in front of Beckham.

“I thought, ‘what the heck. I’m in the England dressing room. Why not say something?’” the paper quoted him as saying. “I looked David straight in the eye and said, ‘David, we’ve spent a lot of money getting here. This is a disgrace. What are you going to do about it?’

“I told them, ‘that was woeful and not good enough.’”

He said neither Beckham, who is injured but traveling with the squad as a team ambassador, nor any of the players responded.

The paper said he was then escorted from the room by a FIFA official.

Police said Sunday the intruder was identified and traced after it studied video footage from the stadium.

However, the newspaper quoted Joseph as saying FIFA already knew his identity because he’d exchanged business cards with the official as he was leaving.

FIFA has described the security breach as “totally unacceptable” and promised security at World Cup stadiums would be tightened.

Police said “tactical decisions” concerning the inner perimeter at venues have been made after discussions with FIFA and South African World Cup organizers.

“Instructions in this regard have been issued to security personnel in all host cities. This is to prevent an incident of this nature from taking place during the rest of the tournament,” police said.

The Sunday Mirror reported that Joseph had a ticket for England’s next match, against Group C leader Slovenia on Wednesday.

Many of the 25,000 England fans at the Algeria game jeered the players after Friday’s performance, which has left England in danger of getting knocked out of the tournament.

AP Sports Writers Graham Dunbar, Stuart Condie and Raf Casert contributed to this report.