Although Mohamed Salah is renowned for his role there, did you know that Gary Lineker also played on the wing while he was a player for Barcelona? Let’s just say that he made manager Johan Cruyff aware of it and didn’t like it.
Although Mohamed Salah is renowned for his role there, did you know that Gary Lineker also played on the wing while he was a player for Barcelona? Let’s just say that he made manager Johan Cruyff aware of it and didn’t like it.
Gerard Depardieu, a French actor accused of sexually abusing two women while filming a scene in 2021, will stand trial in Paris on Monday. He has already been charged with assault and rape.
Depardieu, 76, who has produced more than 200 movies and television shows, is facing charges of improper behavior from around 20 women for the first time since going on trial.
He is the most well-known actor to face racism accusations in French cinema.
The trial, which will take place at 12:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. GMT) before the Paris criminal court, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman during Jean Becker’s “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters” filming in 2021.
A Greek woman is given three life sentences for killing three daughters.
A 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant director, Anouk Grinberg, a well-known actor who appeared in the movie, have supported the two plaintiffs. Both women make allegations of sexual abuse.
Depardieu was constantly making “salacious remarks” during the filming, according to Grinberg, who claimed producers knew they were “hiring an abuser.”
Due to the actor’s poor health, the trial was originally scheduled to take place in October 2024.
According to Depardieu’s attorney Jeremie Assous, “he will be there” this time.
Assous predicted that the court would soon decide the case “in Gerard Depardieu’s favor” in a statement to the RMC broadcaster on Monday morning.
He claimed in the fall that Depardieu had diabetes and had had a quadruple heart bypass, which the stress of the upcoming trial had made them even more anxious.
Depardieu’s court appearances are only allowed for six hours per day, and he will take breaks as needed, according to Assous.
Depardieu, according to him, “denies all of the allegations in their entirety.”
The set dresser, one of Depardieu’s two accusers, reported to the filming company in February last year that she had experienced sexual assault, harassment, and sexist insults.
Depardieu began loudly requesting a cooling fan during the shoot because he “couldn’t even get it up” in the heat, she told French investigative website Mediapart.
She claimed that Depardieu “brutally grabbed” her an hour later and that he boasted about being able to “give women an orgasm without touching them.”
The actor pinned her by “closing his legs” around her, before groping her, going up to her breasts, and then closing his legs.
Depardieu, according to her, made “obscene remarks,” including “come and touch my big parasol.” I’ll put it in your pussy.
She described the actor’s bodyguards dragging him away as he yelled, “We’ll see each other again, my dear.”
Attorney Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told AFP, “My client hopes that the trial will continue this time.”
An assistant director’s second plaintiff also alleges sexual violence.
The trial should be held in accordance with my client’s wishes. However, I’m concerned about how the civil parties at the hearing will be handled by Mr. Depardieu’s defense, according to lawyer Claude Vincent.
Around 20 women have accused Depardieu of improper behavior overall, but several cases have been dropped due to the statute of limitations.
In 2018, French actor Charlotte Arnould became the first woman to report Depardieu to the police.
The actor has consistently denied allegations over the years that he raped and sexually assault him. The Paris prosecutor’s office requested a trial for these allegations last August.
In an open letter to the conservative daily Le Figaro, Depardieu wrote, “Never, but never, have I abused a woman.”
He has previously caused controversy by urinating in the aisle of an airplane and brawling while drinking.
The actor repeatedly makes explicit sexual remarks in front of a female interpreter and appears to sexualize a young girl riding a horse in a documentary that was broadcast on French television in 2023 called “The Fall of the Ogre.”
Tom Williams, kneeling on one knee, runs his hand over the blades of grass. His eyes are desperately scanning as his heartbeat rises further.
It is deep in the second half of the 2009 Heineken Cup quarter-final at the Stoop. Williams ‘ team – Harlequins – are a point down.
It is the biggest match the 25-year-old has ever played in.
Harlequins are aiming to make the last four for the first time. Trying to stop them are a star-studded Leinster team featuring the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Felipe Contepomi.
The stakes are sky-high and time is tight.
But Williams has a more pressing concern.
“I had taken the blood capsule out of my sock, put it in my mouth, and then tried to chew down on it”, he remembers on Sport’s Strangest Crimes: Bloodgate, a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast that delves deeper than ever into one of rugby’s most infamous scandals.
“But it fell out on to the floor. I’m red-green colour-blind. I can’t see the thing on the floor so I am searching around for it.
” It’s just the ridiculousness of it. “
A few minutes later, everyone could see it.
Williams, having found the capsule and burst it between his teeth, was led off the pitch, with strangely scarlet blood streaming from his mouth, splattering on Quins ‘ famous quartered shirt.
The convenience of Williams ‘ injury raised eyebrows and suspicions.
” Who punched Tom Williams in the mouth, Tom Williams? “said former Bath and England fly-half Stuart Barnes as he commentated on Sky Sports.
Further along in the press box, Brian Moore was working for BBC Radio.
” What a load of rubbish. That is gamesmanship at best, downright cheating at worst, “he said on air.
Down on the touchline, Leinster’s staff were making a similar point, if in stronger language.
” As it was playing out]Harlequins director of rugby] Dean Richards was on the sidelines and I had a few words with him, “says Ronan O’Donnell, the Irish side’s operations manager.
” I’d probably have to bleep a few of them out. I just told him he was cheating and he knew he was cheating. “
O’Donnell repeated his claim to one of the touchline officials.
” He showed me his fingers, “remembers O’Donnell.
” He’d got some of the ‘ blood ‘ on his fingers and it was like a Crayola marker had burst on his hands. It was that sort of texture and colour. He wasn’t happy about it either. “
Williams headed down the tunnel, surrounded by Harlequins staff. Members of the Leinster backroom followed in hot pursuit.
This video can not be played
Richards was asked about Williams ‘ apparent injury immediately after the match.
” He came off with a cut in his mouth and you have a right, if someone has a cut, to bring them off, “he said.
” So your conscience is clear on that one? “persisted touchline reporter Graham Simmons.
” Yes, very much so, “affirmed Richards.
The capsule was done, but the cover-up had begun.
Williams, by then, did have a cut in his mouth.
Locked in the home dressing room, while Leinster staff and match officials hammered on the door demanding entry and an explanation, he had pleaded with club doctor Wendy Chapman to use a scalpel to create a real injury in place of the fake one.
With the volume increasing outside, she reluctantly did so. A photo was taken as evidence to support Quins ‘ conspiracy.
” We were trying to win and we thought nothing of it in terms of ethics, “Williams tells Bloodgate.
” We thought we were just pushing the boundaries and doing what it took to try and get a result. “
They had failed to do so on the pitch. A limping Evans had shanked a late drop-goal and Leinster hung on to win.
Soon, they needed to do so in a boardroom.
Three months after the match, Williams, Chapman, Richards and Harlequins physio Steph Brennan were sat in the plush offices of a central London law firm.
All faced misconduct charges. And a big screen.
The screen played television pictures which had never originally been broadcast.
They showed Brennan appearing to pass something to Williams as he went on the pitch to treat another player. Williams then appeared to fold the mystery object into the top of his sock.
And then finally, a few minutes later, the wing, kneeled, retrieved it and, after dropping it on the floor, placed it back in his mouth.
The club had its defence though.
Richards had co-ordinated their accounts.
Williams, they all claimed, had been retrieving his mouthguard from his sock. His mouth was already bleeding. Chapman had applied gauze to Williams ‘ mouth, not a scalpel.
Richards called the charges against him and his club” ridiculous”, claiming that fair play was” in-built “to his coaching.
Brennan, who had bought the capsule used by Williams from a fancy dress shop in Clapham, claimed never to have seen them outside of a Halloween party.
The panel presiding over the case were suspicious, but, with Quins ‘ backroom staff sticking rigidly to their story, they couldn’t unpick the full connivance.
” It was just so obviously a lie, “says Williams”. I realised I was properly in trouble. “
When the verdict came, it landed wholly on Williams. He was banned from rugby for a year. Richards, Chapman and Brennan were all cleared, with the club handed a 250, 000 euro fine for failing to control their player.
WIlliams was, in the eyes of the adjudicating panel, a lone rogue agent.
Williams, having supposedly brought disgrace on Harlequins by independently concocting the blood capsule plan, sought advice from the Rugby Players ‘ Association.
They urged him to appeal, to blow the whistle on the whole plot.
But the club had other ideas. Williams was offered a new two-year deal, three years of guaranteed employment at the club once he had retired and a promise to help him build a career outside of rugby.
He just had to hold back on the real story. He had to be a team-mate once more. He had to protect the club that meant so much to them all.
The full extent of the plot, the complicity of the club’s medical staff and coaches, couldn’t come out.
” They said to me ‘ do you understand the impact of this decision you’re about to make? If you come forward and show this, Harlequins will be kicked out of Europe, your friends ‘ playing opportunities for their countries will be reduced, Steph and Wendy will be struck off, we’ll lose sponsors we’ll lose money’, “Williams remembers.
” Playing rugby was all I wanted to do and all I felt that I could do.
“So I was stuck between coming forward and telling the truth and falling on my sword. And I didn’t know what to do”.
“I’d have taken the rap”, Ugo Monye, Williams ‘ team-mate at the time, tells Bloodgate. “With the deal that was supposedly being offered, 100%”.
The pressure was extreme.
Harlequins were desperate to contain a toxic scandal. Banned and branded a cheat, Williams wanted to tell the truth, explain his actions and rescue his rugby dreams.
At one point, he asked for more money in exchange for his silence, £390, 000 to pay off his mortgage and a four-year contract. Quins refused.
In a statement from the time Quins chairman Charles Jillings described Williams ‘ demands as “exorbitant” and “shocking”. He insisted that “under no circumstances was the financial proposal a reward for Tom’s silence”.
“I’d sunk to rock bottom”, says Williams. “It was a catastrophic period from a personal standpoint”.
And all the time, the clock was ticking.
Williams had one month to appeal against his ban, to go public and get his career back on track.
Two days before the window to appeal shut, an email landed in Williams inbox.
He wasn’t the only one considering an appeal. The European Cup organisers too were unhappy that he was the only person found guilty. They knew there must be more to the case.
The chances of one young player coming up with such a scheme on his own and carrying it out in secret in the tight and tightly-controlled environment of a professional club were remote.
They wrote to tell Williams they were to appeal against Richards, Brennan and Chapman being cleared. They would call him as a witness, cross-examine him and, if he didn’t comply, level a second misconduct charge at him.
“His face literally just went white”, remembers Alex, Williams ‘ girlfriend at the time, now wife.
A final summit meeting with the Harlequins hierarchy was called.
Tom and Alex drove to the Surrey home of one of the club’s board. Drinks and snacks were laid out, but the conversation soon turned to business.
“We were going round and round in circles”, remembers Tom.
“Harlequins were saying to me, if I fell on my sword, for want of a better term, they would guarantee me future employment, pay off some of my mortgage, pay for me to go on sabbatical and we’ll guarantee my girlfriend’s future employment.
” On the other hand, if I came forward and told the truth they said l would bury the club. “
Frustrated, stressed and tired after three hours of back and forth, Alex excused herself for a cigarette break. As she stubbed it out and prepared to go back into the meeting, she saw Tom coming in the opposite direction.
He had given up. He would run away, leave the country, turn his back on rugby, start again – anything to get out of this situation.
Alex hadn’t finished though. She wanted to ask one more question of the 13 men in the room.
She walked back in.
” I remember the surprise on their faces when it was just me standing there, “she says.
” I said ‘ I’m really sorry to bother you again, but do you mind if I just have you for a couple more minutes? I just want to ask you all individually one question’.
“I went round and I actually pointed to every single person and I just said, ‘ Is this Tom’s fault? ‘ And each of them gave a resounding no. Every single one of them”.
“Alex humanised me again, because I had dehumanised myself, Harlequins had dehumanised me”, says Tom.
“I was a pawn by that point, and I was ready to be moved in any way that anyone pushed me.
” She was the person from outside of this tight rugby centric-environment who could cut through that.
Early the next morning, Tom got a phone call.
Richards had resigned. Harlequins said they would support Williams telling the truth and accept the fall-out.
The game was up. The cover-up would be uncovered. The truth would change lives.
At a hearing in Glasgow, Williams told the full story.
Richards admitted instructing physio Brennan to carry the blood capsules in his medical bag “just in case”. He was judged to be the “directing mind” of the Bloodgate plot and banned from rugby for three years.
Brennan admitted buying the fake blood in advance and was described as Richards ‘ “willing lieutenant”. He was banned from the sport for two years and a dream job working with England, all lined up, was gone.
Harlequins ‘ club doctor Chapman was referred to the General Medical Council. By cutting open Tom’s mouth, she had contravened a central principle of medicine to “do no harm”.
She said she was “ashamed” and “horrified” by what she had done, but she had an unlikely supporter.
Arthur Tanner – the Leinster doctor that day at the Stoop, one of those incensed by Tom’s fake injury – spoke up for her.
“When it transpired that she had been forced and coerced into doing it I really felt very, very sorry for her because I realised there was going to be a difficult two or three years ahead of her”, he said.
Tom, who had pleaded with Chapman to cut his mouth, also supported her, telling the hearing she is “as much a victim in all this as me”.
“It’s a huge regret of mine… putting her in a position where she felt she had no other option but to do it”, says Tom.
Chapman was cleared to return to medicine.
Of the quartet though, Williams was the only one to stay at Harlequins.
At the first game of the following season, some opposition fans turned up dressed as vampires.
He was targeted on the pitch, with opposing players aiming taunts, and sometimes punches, at him.
There was no sanctuary in the home dressing room either.
“A number of my team-mates would have been loyal to Dean Richards and felt that I’d betrayed not only him, but also them as a club”, remembers Williams.
“It definitely impacted them, there was definitely a level of distrust, probably dislike as well”.
Williams became a quieter, sadder, slower presence. The zip was gone from his game, the smile was gone from his face.
It seemed he was just playing out his contract, an unwanted reminder of the past as Harlequins built an exciting new team under new boss Conor O’Shea during the 2011-12 season.
“I’d lost every morsel of confidence that I possibly could have had”, remembers Williams.
“I wasn’t in the team. I was just that person around training who had done something in the past”.
But, after a starring cameo in a win over French giants Toulouse, something reignited in Williams ‘ game.
The season ended with Harlequins winning their first Premiership crown in the Twickenham sun, with Williams scoring the first try in front of Alex and their young son.
“It’s curious how sport works, how life works out”, says Williams.
But you can also go in the opposite direction.
Williams played for Harlequins until 2015 when moved on to the coaching staff. In 2019, he left rugby to pursue a career in consultancy.
“About five years ago, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and I suspect that it came from this event”, he says.
“I’ve been on medication ever since, and I struggle on a day-to-day basis.
” My initial impression is always to trust, and that got me in trouble in the first place – but it’s how I operate best. I try and see the best in people.
“I try and see the best in everyone involved. And I wish them the best because there’s no point holding on to it.
” Ultimately, it was a game of sport, but it did mean everything to me at the time.
This video can not be played
” I am very, very happy now. I’ve got three children who are healthy and happy, and I feel like I’m building a life for myself that isn’t identified by a moment in time in 2009. “
Escaping the taint of what spilled from the capsule and cut that day has been hard for all involved.
Tom Williams, kneeling on one knee, runs his hand over the blades of grass. His eyes are desperately scanning as his heartbeat rises further.
It is deep in the second half of the 2009 Heineken Cup quarter-final at the Stoop. Williams ‘ team – Harlequins – are a point down.
It is the biggest match the 25-year-old has ever played in.
Harlequins are aiming to make the last four for the first time. Trying to stop them are a star-studded Leinster team featuring the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Felipe Contepomi.
The stakes are sky-high and time is tight.
But Williams has a more pressing concern.
“I had taken the blood capsule out of my sock, put it in my mouth, and then tried to chew down on it”, he remembers on Sport’s Strangest Crimes: Bloodgate, a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast that delves deeper than ever into one of rugby’s most infamous scandals.
“But it fell out on to the floor. I’m red-green colour-blind. I can’t see the thing on the floor so I am searching around for it.
” It’s just the ridiculousness of it. “
A few minutes later, everyone could see it.
Williams, having found the capsule and burst it between his teeth, was led off the pitch, with strangely scarlet blood streaming from his mouth, splattering on Quins ‘ famous quartered shirt.
The convenience of Williams ‘ injury raised eyebrows and suspicions.
” Who punched Tom Williams in the mouth, Tom Williams? “said former Bath and England fly-half Stuart Barnes as he commentated on Sky Sports.
Further along in the press box, Brian Moore was working for BBC Radio.
” What a load of rubbish. That is gamesmanship at best, downright cheating at worst, “he said on air.
Down on the touchline, Leinster’s staff were making a similar point, if in stronger language.
” As it was playing out]Harlequins director of rugby] Dean Richards was on the sidelines and I had a few words with him, “says Ronan O’Donnell, the Irish side’s operations manager.
” I’d probably have to bleep a few of them out. I just told him he was cheating and he knew he was cheating. “
O’Donnell repeated his claim to one of the touchline officials.
” He showed me his fingers, “remembers O’Donnell.
” He’d got some of the ‘ blood ‘ on his fingers and it was like a Crayola marker had burst on his hands. It was that sort of texture and colour. He wasn’t happy about it either. “
Williams headed down the tunnel, surrounded by Harlequins staff. Members of the Leinster backroom followed in hot pursuit.
This video can not be played
Richards was asked about Williams ‘ apparent injury immediately after the match.
” He came off with a cut in his mouth and you have a right, if someone has a cut, to bring them off, “he said.
” So your conscience is clear on that one? “persisted touchline reporter Graham Simmons.
” Yes, very much so, “affirmed Richards.
The capsule was done, but the cover-up had begun.
Williams, by then, did have a cut in his mouth.
Locked in the home dressing room, while Leinster staff and match officials hammered on the door demanding entry and an explanation, he had pleaded with club doctor Wendy Chapman to use a scalpel to create a real injury in place of the fake one.
With the volume increasing outside, she reluctantly did so. A photo was taken as evidence to support Quins ‘ conspiracy.
” We were trying to win and we thought nothing of it in terms of ethics, “Williams tells Bloodgate.
” We thought we were just pushing the boundaries and doing what it took to try and get a result. “
They had failed to do so on the pitch. A limping Evans had shanked a late drop-goal and Leinster hung on to win.
Soon, they needed to do so in a boardroom.
Three months after the match, Williams, Chapman, Richards and Harlequins physio Steph Brennan were sat in the plush offices of a central London law firm.
All faced misconduct charges. And a big screen.
The screen played television pictures which had never originally been broadcast.
They showed Brennan appearing to pass something to Williams as he went on the pitch to treat another player. Williams then appeared to fold the mystery object into the top of his sock.
And then finally, a few minutes later, the wing, kneeled, retrieved it and, after dropping it on the floor, placed it back in his mouth.
The club had its defence though.
Richards had co-ordinated their accounts.
Williams, they all claimed, had been retrieving his mouthguard from his sock. His mouth was already bleeding. Chapman had applied gauze to Williams ‘ mouth, not a scalpel.
Richards called the charges against him and his club” ridiculous”, claiming that fair play was” in-built “to his coaching.
Brennan, who had bought the capsule used by Williams from a fancy dress shop in Clapham, claimed never to have seen them outside of a Halloween party.
The panel presiding over the case were suspicious, but, with Quins ‘ backroom staff sticking rigidly to their story, they couldn’t unpick the full connivance.
” It was just so obviously a lie, “says Williams”. I realised I was properly in trouble. “
When the verdict came, it landed wholly on Williams. He was banned from rugby for a year. Richards, Chapman and Brennan were all cleared, with the club handed a 250, 000 euro fine for failing to control their player.
WIlliams was, in the eyes of the adjudicating panel, a lone rogue agent.
Williams, having supposedly brought disgrace on Harlequins by independently concocting the blood capsule plan, sought advice from the Rugby Players ‘ Association.
They urged him to appeal, to blow the whistle on the whole plot.
But the club had other ideas. Williams was offered a new two-year deal, three years of guaranteed employment at the club once he had retired and a promise to help him build a career outside of rugby.
He just had to hold back on the real story. He had to be a team-mate once more. He had to protect the club that meant so much to them all.
The full extent of the plot, the complicity of the club’s medical staff and coaches, couldn’t come out.
” They said to me ‘ do you understand the impact of this decision you’re about to make? If you come forward and show this, Harlequins will be kicked out of Europe, your friends ‘ playing opportunities for their countries will be reduced, Steph and Wendy will be struck off, we’ll lose sponsors we’ll lose money’, “Williams remembers.
” Playing rugby was all I wanted to do and all I felt that I could do.
“So I was stuck between coming forward and telling the truth and falling on my sword. And I didn’t know what to do”.
“I’d have taken the rap”, Ugo Monye, Williams ‘ team-mate at the time, tells Bloodgate. “With the deal that was supposedly being offered, 100%”.
The pressure was extreme.
Harlequins were desperate to contain a toxic scandal. Banned and branded a cheat, Williams wanted to tell the truth, explain his actions and rescue his rugby dreams.
At one point, he asked for more money in exchange for his silence, £390, 000 to pay off his mortgage and a four-year contract. Quins refused.
In a statement from the time Quins chairman Charles Jillings described Williams ‘ demands as “exorbitant” and “shocking”. He insisted that “under no circumstances was the financial proposal a reward for Tom’s silence”.
“I’d sunk to rock bottom”, says Williams. “It was a catastrophic period from a personal standpoint”.
And all the time, the clock was ticking.
Williams had one month to appeal against his ban, to go public and get his career back on track.
Two days before the window to appeal shut, an email landed in Williams inbox.
He wasn’t the only one considering an appeal. The European Cup organisers too were unhappy that he was the only person found guilty. They knew there must be more to the case.
The chances of one young player coming up with such a scheme on his own and carrying it out in secret in the tight and tightly-controlled environment of a professional club were remote.
They wrote to tell Williams they were to appeal against Richards, Brennan and Chapman being cleared. They would call him as a witness, cross-examine him and, if he didn’t comply, level a second misconduct charge at him.
“His face literally just went white”, remembers Alex, Williams ‘ girlfriend at the time, now wife.
A final summit meeting with the Harlequins hierarchy was called.
Tom and Alex drove to the Surrey home of one of the club’s board. Drinks and snacks were laid out, but the conversation soon turned to business.
“We were going round and round in circles”, remembers Tom.
“Harlequins were saying to me, if I fell on my sword, for want of a better term, they would guarantee me future employment, pay off some of my mortgage, pay for me to go on sabbatical and we’ll guarantee my girlfriend’s future employment.
” On the other hand, if I came forward and told the truth they said l would bury the club. “
Frustrated, stressed and tired after three hours of back and forth, Alex excused herself for a cigarette break. As she stubbed it out and prepared to go back into the meeting, she saw Tom coming in the opposite direction.
He had given up. He would run away, leave the country, turn his back on rugby, start again – anything to get out of this situation.
Alex hadn’t finished though. She wanted to ask one more question of the 13 men in the room.
She walked back in.
” I remember the surprise on their faces when it was just me standing there, “she says.
” I said ‘ I’m really sorry to bother you again, but do you mind if I just have you for a couple more minutes? I just want to ask you all individually one question’.
“I went round and I actually pointed to every single person and I just said, ‘ Is this Tom’s fault? ‘ And each of them gave a resounding no. Every single one of them”.
“Alex humanised me again, because I had dehumanised myself, Harlequins had dehumanised me”, says Tom.
“I was a pawn by that point, and I was ready to be moved in any way that anyone pushed me.
” She was the person from outside of this tight rugby centric-environment who could cut through that.
Early the next morning, Tom got a phone call.
Richards had resigned. Harlequins said they would support Williams telling the truth and accept the fall-out.
The game was up. The cover-up would be uncovered. The truth would change lives.
At a hearing in Glasgow, Williams told the full story.
Richards admitted instructing physio Brennan to carry the blood capsules in his medical bag “just in case”. He was judged to be the “directing mind” of the Bloodgate plot and banned from rugby for three years.
Brennan admitted buying the fake blood in advance and was described as Richards ‘ “willing lieutenant”. He was banned from the sport for two years and a dream job working with England, all lined up, was gone.
Harlequins ‘ club doctor Chapman was referred to the General Medical Council. By cutting open Tom’s mouth, she had contravened a central principle of medicine to “do no harm”.
She said she was “ashamed” and “horrified” by what she had done, but she had an unlikely supporter.
Arthur Tanner – the Leinster doctor that day at the Stoop, one of those incensed by Tom’s fake injury – spoke up for her.
“When it transpired that she had been forced and coerced into doing it I really felt very, very sorry for her because I realised there was going to be a difficult two or three years ahead of her”, he said.
Tom, who had pleaded with Chapman to cut his mouth, also supported her, telling the hearing she is “as much a victim in all this as me”.
“It’s a huge regret of mine… putting her in a position where she felt she had no other option but to do it”, says Tom.
Chapman was cleared to return to medicine.
Of the quartet though, Williams was the only one to stay at Harlequins.
At the first game of the following season, some opposition fans turned up dressed as vampires.
He was targeted on the pitch, with opposing players aiming taunts, and sometimes punches, at him.
There was no sanctuary in the home dressing room either.
“A number of my team-mates would have been loyal to Dean Richards and felt that I’d betrayed not only him, but also them as a club”, remembers Williams.
“It definitely impacted them, there was definitely a level of distrust, probably dislike as well”.
Williams became a quieter, sadder, slower presence. The zip was gone from his game, the smile was gone from his face.
It seemed he was just playing out his contract, an unwanted reminder of the past as Harlequins built an exciting new team under new boss Conor O’Shea during the 2011-12 season.
“I’d lost every morsel of confidence that I possibly could have had”, remembers Williams.
“I wasn’t in the team. I was just that person around training who had done something in the past”.
But, after a starring cameo in a win over French giants Toulouse, something reignited in Williams ‘ game.
The season ended with Harlequins winning their first Premiership crown in the Twickenham sun, with Williams scoring the first try in front of Alex and their young son.
“It’s curious how sport works, how life works out”, says Williams.
But you can also go in the opposite direction.
Williams played for Harlequins until 2015 when moved on to the coaching staff. In 2019, he left rugby to pursue a career in consultancy.
“About five years ago, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and I suspect that it came from this event”, he says.
“I’ve been on medication ever since, and I struggle on a day-to-day basis.
” My initial impression is always to trust, and that got me in trouble in the first place – but it’s how I operate best. I try and see the best in people.
“I try and see the best in everyone involved. And I wish them the best because there’s no point holding on to it.
” Ultimately, it was a game of sport, but it did mean everything to me at the time.
This video can not be played
” I am very, very happy now. I’ve got three children who are healthy and happy, and I feel like I’m building a life for myself that isn’t identified by a moment in time in 2009. “
Escaping the taint of what spilled from the capsule and cut that day has been hard for all involved.
The Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) nominees list has been released. The cut was made up of Omoni Oboli, Usor Arukwe, and others.  ,
The shortlist was made public on Sunday night by the organizers of the awards ceremony, which recognizes excellence in filmmaking, acting, and content creation.
Omoni was chosen for her role in Wives on Strike 3, while Uzor was nominated for Best Actress in the Showcase.
There will be 28 voting and non-voting categories for the 2025 edition.
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AMVCA 2025 Nominees ,
See the AMVCA 2025 nominees’ full names below.
Best Actress in the Showcase
Life Inside by Meg Otanwa
Suspicion by Tina Mba
Ireti Doyle – All’s Fair in Love
Skeleton Coas – Ini Dinma
Farmer’s Bride by Mercy Aigbe
Wives on Strike 3: The Uprising by Omoni Oboli
Darasimi Nnadi-Aburo
Best Actor in Support
Princess On a Hill, Efa Iwara
The Uprising is portrayed by Adedayo Adebowale Macaroni (Mr. Macaroni) and Lisabi.
Suspicion of Uzor Arukwe
House of Ga’a by Mike Afolarin
Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD) – Lagos celebrates Christmas
Life Inside by Gabriel Afolayan
Seven Doors by Aliu Gafar
Freedom Way by Femi Jacobs
Best Lead Actress
Seven Doors by Chioma Akpotha
Farmer’s Bride by Gbubemi Ejeye
Agemo – Uzoamaka Onuoha
Thinline vs. Uche Montana
Phoenix Fury from Uzoamaka Aniunoh
Wives on Strike 3 by Hilda Dokubo
Anikulapo and Bimbo Ademoye: Rise of the Spectre
Best Lead Actor
Tokunbo and Gideon Okeke
The Weekend by Bucci Franklin
House of Ga’a – Femi Branch
Skeleton Coast by Thapelo Makoena
Princess on A Hill by Bimbo Manuel
Stan Nze: Suspicion
Seven Doors by Femi Adebayo
Adedimeji Lateef’s Lisabi: The Uprising
West African nominees for Best Indigenous Language
Femi Adebayo of Seven Doors
Adebimpe Oyebade Adedimeji and Adedimeji Latest, Lisabi: The Uprising
Prince Daniel is Kaka
Kunle Afolayan — Rise of the Spectre Anikulapo
Prince Daniel is Mai Martaba.
Best film
Lisabi: The Uprising
Skeleton Coast
Suspicion
Inkabi
House of GA’A
Freedom Way
Lagos celebrates Christmas
Farmer’s Bride
Best Scripted (M-Net Original) nominees
Uriri and Xavier Ighorodje
Hadizat Ibrahim, All Mine
Chinenye Nworah and Taiwo Adebayo’s wedding is a fairytale wedding.
Rogers Ofime — Italo
Brain Munene, The Caller is
Damaris Irungu Ochieng, Kam U Stay
Best writing film
Phoenix Fury
A Ghetto Love Story
Lagos celebrates Christmas
Freedom Way
The Weekend
House of Ga’a
Best Short Film
Brukaci
In Bloom, see “Afefe.”
Sukari
The Incredible Sensational Fiancée of Sèy jày
What Do You Really Fear?
Best Director
House of Ga’a – Bolanle Austen-Peters
Norman Maake and Inkabi
Femi Adebayo, Adebayo Tijani, and Tope Adebayo are the members of Seven Doors.
Robert O Peters, Skeleton Coast
Awam Amkpa, The Man Perished
Daniel Emeke Oriahi from The Weekend
Best Cinematography nominees
Onasis Gaisie, Michael Sefa, and Apagnawen Annankra are the stars of Yen Ara Asaase Ni (This Is Our Land).
Chuanne Blofield — Inkabi
Leo Purman’s The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos
Wesley Johnston of Skeleton Coast
Ebrahim Hajee’s Soft Love
Barnabas Emordi and Nora Awolowo are the authors of Lisabi: The Uprising.
Papama Tangela and Agemo
Best Costume Design
Adedamola Adeyemi’s Christmas in Lagos
Oluwatoyin Balogun and Oyebade Adebimpe Adedimeji, Oluwatoyin Balogun and Lisabi: The Uprising
Toyin Ogundeji’s Anikulapo: The Spectre’s Resurrection
House of Ga’a — Bolanle Austen-Peters, Yolanda Okereke, Juliana Dede, and Gloria Ovu
Opeyemi Sogeke, Phoenix Fury
Best Score
Ahuurra Andrew, Kehinde “Louddaaa” Alabi, and Cobhams Asuquo are the members of Freedom Way.
Tolu Obanro of Seven Doors
Seoli Bongani Mashaba in Inkabi,
Chris Letcher of Skeleton Coast
Kolade Morankinyo (MPSE) and Efa Iwara (Love and Hate) are known as “Soft Love.”
Best Cosmetics
Anikulapo: The Spectre’s Resurrection
Life Inside
Farmer’s Bride
Lisabi: The Uprising
Seven Doors
Suspicion
Best Editing nominees
Tongai Furusa and Inkabi
Lagos celebrates Christmas — Martini Akande
Jordan Koen and Skeleton Coast
Holmes Awa and Paballo Modingoane, “Soft Love”
Anthill Studios’ Lisabi: The Uprising
Laughter Ephraim and Peter Ugbede play Princess on a Hill.
Best Documentary
Dundun
I’ll Keep You In Mind.
O. Y. O (On Your Own)
The Walvis Tale
Women of Salt: Ebonyi’s Women’s Resilience
Best Art Direction
The Man Perished
Lisabi: The Uprising
Lagos celebrates Christmas
Seven Doors
Anikulapo: The Spectre’s Resurrection
Best Sound Design
Beast of the Two Worlds
Freedom Way
Inkabi
Lisabi: The Uprising
Seven Doors
Suspicion
Best East African Indigenous Languages
The Empty Grave
Yangu Makosa
Sabotage
The Caller is
Wa Milele ? (Forever)
Best Digital Content Maker
Ibitoye (Jide Pounds):
Dorcas Ariyiike Owolagba (Ariyiike Dimples)
Iyo Prosper is
Elozonam
Taaooma (Maryam Apaokagi)
Best Scripted Series
Life Inside
Cheta M
Princess on a Hill
Seven Doors
Roses & Ivy
Unscripted Best Series:
Ebuka Represents Africa
The Builders Show’s Skillers
Style Magnate
Uzoamaka attempts Palmwine
Wa Milele ? (Forever)
Best TV series for writing