Distin fined for Barton trial no-show

The Frenchman was warned he could have faced a jail term if his absence had led to a delay in court proceedings.

Distin, 30, ignored a hand-delivered summons to appear in court and flew to Crete for a holiday with his family days before the hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on June 30.

Distin was required to give verbal evidence after witnessing the training ground bust-up at Manchester City last May in which Barton attacked Ousmane Dabo.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told Distin his non-appearance would have halted the case if Barton had not changed his plea to guilty and a custodial sentence could have followed.

Appearing in the witness box, Distin told the judge he did not understand what a summons was because he had never been arrested or appeared before a court.

Judge Khokhar said however that there could have been no misunderstanding when he received the notice from a police constable at his home in Poole, Dorset, on May 11.

A warning stating clearly that failure to attend without just excuse may be treated as a contempt of court was on all such documents, he said.

He said: "In my mind there is no doubt Sylvain Distin did know that he had to attend. He chose not to cancel this holiday knowing full well he had a duty to attend.

"When somebody fails to attend that is treated very seriously indeed. Normally a short custodial sentence follows but I am not going to do that. At the end of the day the case resolved itself without the necessity for Mr Distin to attend."