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BBC TV documentary MacIntyre Undercover secretly filmed a gang of football hooligans planning fights with opposing supporters, a court heard on Monday.
Two alleged members of the Chelsea Headhunters gang, Jason Marriner, 33, and Andrew Frain, 36, were secretly filmed boasting of the havoc they wanted to cause at a football match, the jury at London's Blackfriars Crown Court was told. They were filmed by an undercover team, including journalists Donal MacIntyre and Paul Atkinson from the BBC One programme, screened last November. Charles Vaudin, prosecuting, said it was clear that the prime motive the men had in attending football matches was not the love of the sport but simply the opportunity for violence that they presented. "That is their fun, that is the way they get their kicks," he alleged. 'Pre-planned hooliganism' Opening the trial, scheduled to last three weeks, Mr Vaudin told the jury of three men and nine women the defendants were targeted after television producers set out to prove their theory that there was such a thing as pre-planned football hooliganism. "There are those amongst our society whose sole purpose in going to football matches is not to go to a game or enjoy a game or allow others to enjoy a game, but to disrupt a game either during the football match, before the match or after the match," Mr Vaudin said. "Their game is not football, their game is violence." 'Organisation of violence' With hidden video cameras installed in a Mercedes car, reporter MacIntyre drove Mr Marriner and Mr Frain to the Leicester v Chelsea match on 21 November, 1998. "There was film footage of the journey which shows clearly that there had been a pre-arranged agreement between Marriner and Frain and a group of people on three Chelsea coaches to meet a group of Leicester hooligans in Loughborough. "Throughout the journey there were phone conversations between Marriner or Frain and the people on the Chelsea coaches - part of a group assisting in the general organisation of violence," Mr Vaudin said. Unfortunately for them, he said, the police had learned of the planned battle and were there in such large numbers that no large scale trouble occurred. But Mr Marriner was later filmed in Filbert Street as fighting broke out on the terraces, and spilled over into Leicester city centre after the match. "That is the sort of violence that the Chelsea Headhunters relish," Mr Vaudin added. 'Dirty little lie' But one of the defence barristers told the court it was the journalists who were "dangerous men" who could not be trusted. Michael Wolkind QC, defending Mr Marriner, said Mr MacIntyre and Mr Atkinson could be shown as "greasy and self-congratulatory" individuals who believed they would never be brought to book for their questionable tactics. Footage they had shot, which had been uncovered by the defence, would show neither man was "reliable", he added. The programme the journalists eventually put together had been a "dirty little lie", he said. He added: "Mr MacIntyre and Mr Atkinson are not attractive reporters. They wanted their man at any cost. So they are not really journalists, they are headhunters." Mr Marriner, of Hampton Road, Feltham, Middlesex, and Mr Frain, of Granville Road, Reading, both deny affray on 30 January 1999, and conspiracy to commit violent disorder between 15 August and 21 November 1998.
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