Welsh Grand National Trainer Evan Williams Jailed Three Years for Violent Hockey Stick Attack

One of Welsh horse racing's most decorated figures has been handed a custodial sentence that casts a profound shadow over his career and the future of his training operation. Evan Williams, 55, was sentenced to three years in prison at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday after being found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent in an assault that has shocked the British racing community.

Williams, who trained Secret Reprieve to win the 2020 Welsh Grand National and achieved a string of Grade One victories across his career, attacked Martin Dandridge, a 72-year-old dog walker, on his property at Llancarfan in south Wales in December 2024. The assault involved Williams repeatedly striking Dandridge with a hockey stick, leaving the pensioner with serious injuries including a fractured arm. Dandridge, from Swindon, has continued to live with the physical consequences of the attack in the sixteen months since it occurred.

Williams denied the charge throughout proceedings and contested the case at trial, but a unanimous jury took just ninety minutes to return a guilty verdict following hearings in March. Sentencing him, Recorder Angharad Price was unequivocal in her condemnation. "This is an appalling offence where you attacked Mr Dandridge causing him serious injuries," she told Williams in court. "I know that you fully understand that he is still living with the impact of your actions on that day sixteen months ago."

The judge acknowledged that a troubling incident had occurred on Williams's land approximately six weeks before the assault, in which the trainer was threatened by poachers armed with a shotgun. That context, however, provided no mitigation for his actions. "It is never acceptable to take the law into your own hands," Recorder Price said. "This sentence will be a lesson to you that it is always better to call the police if you think a crime is being committed."

Defence barrister David Elias KC raised the stakes for the racing world when he warned the court: "If he isn't there, there is no business," highlighting the possibility that Williams's three-year absence could effectively end Evan Williams Racing, the stable he founded in 2003.

Williams built one of Wales' most respected training operations over more than two decades, recording top-four finishes in five consecutive Grand Nationals at Aintree between 2009 and 2013. His training licence was taken over by his wife, Cath Williams, following his conviction, and just last month Ask Brewster carried the stable's colours to victory in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival — a poignant reminder of what the operation is capable of even in the most difficult circumstances.