Evan Williams Sentenced to Three Years for Hockey Stick Assault on Dog Walker

Evan Williams built his reputation over decades of success on racecourses across Britain. The Welsh Grand National-winning trainer had become synonymous with excellence at Cheltenham and Aintree, a figure whose methods produced Grade One winners and attracted horses from across the country to his Llancarfan yard in south Wales. All of that now hangs in the balance after a Cardiff Crown Court sentenced him to three years in prison for a sustained assault on a defenceless older man.

Martin Dandridge, 72, was walking his dogs on Williams's land when the trainer confronted him in December 2024. What followed was a violent episode that left Dandridge with a fractured arm and injuries that the judge said he continues to live with sixteen months later. Williams used a hockey stick as his weapon, striking Dandridge repeatedly. The attack was so severe that it warranted a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and a jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before delivering a unanimous verdict of conviction in March.

Williams, who denied the charge throughout, argued the dog walker had threatened members of his family. The court heard that six weeks before the assault, Williams had confronted poachers on his property and been threatened with a shotgun. Recorder Angharad Price acknowledged the terror of that experience, but her message from the bench was unequivocal: it is never acceptable to take the law into your own hands.

The financial reality of Williams's conviction extends well beyond the prison sentence. His barrister, David Elias KC, told the court that without Williams present to run the operation, there effectively is no business. His wife Cath had already taken over the training licence following the guilty verdict, and it was under her name that Ask Brewster won the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase at last month's Cheltenham Festival. Whether that can continue once Williams begins his sentence remains deeply uncertain.

The judge's parting words to Williams were pointed. She told him he had a choice on the day in question: to confront Dandridge himself or to wait for police officers who were already nearby. He made the wrong call, and a 72-year-old man paid the price. The sentence, she said, would serve as a lesson that calling the authorities is always the better path.

Williams's record in racing is not in doubt. He established his operation in 2003 and became one of Wales' most decorated trainers, with four consecutive top-four finishes in the Grand National at Aintree between 2009 and 2013. He trained Secret Reprieve to win the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow in 2020. But that legacy will now be overshadowed by a criminal conviction that has left his stable's future in genuine doubt.