Two TV football cases put on hold

Two licensees have had prosecutions for screening Premiership football via North African channel ART put on hold until after the landmark Murphy appeal in Europe.

Adjourning the trial of hosts Alan and Mary Doyle, District Judge Prowse told Tameside Magistrates: "What the ECJ [European Court of Justice] decides in the Murphy case may have a dramatic impact on the outcome of this case.

"It does not seem to me right to go any further with this case until the ECJ has made a decision [in the Murphy case]."

It could be up to two years before Karen Murphy's ECJ appeal against her prosecution for showing foreign satellite football is heard.

The Doyles, of the Hallbottom Gate Inn, in Hyde, Cheshire, are being prosecuted for using ART to broadcast Premiership football.

In a separate case, Newcastle-upon-Tyne magistrates adjourned the trial of Alec Piercy, of the Ridge Farm Pub & Restaurant at Bedlington, Northumberland. He pleaded not guilty to breaking copyright law by screening Premiership football using ART.

Paul Dixon, of Molesworths Bright Clegg, who represents Murphy, Piercy and the Doyles, said: "The courts can see the motive behind the Premier League's relentless pursuit of honest, hard-working licensees — money, vast sums of money.

"The time has come to call a halt to all prosecutions of licensees for using foreign satellite systems and to await the decision of the ECJ."

Adjournments are an exception​

The man who heads the prosecutions for foreign satellite screenings said the adjournments are the exception, not the rule.

MPS boss Ray Hoskin said: "The court can ask for an adjournment as long or as short as it wishes. In one or two cases the courts have chosen to adjourn cases for longer."

Hoskin said more than 60 pubs face prosecution this season.