Grand National-associated horse trainer Evan Williams received a three-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent. Williams, 54, violently struck Martin Dandridge, 72, with a hockey stick during an attack in a paddock near the trainer's yard in the Vale of Glamorgan in December 2024. The assault left Dandridge with a broken arm.

Williams claimed he confronted Dandridge, who was walking his dog with a torch, because he feared the light would upset his 120 horses stabled nearby. Evidence suggested Williams acted out of rage, believing Dandridge was 'lamping'—using bright lights to locate game—a concern amplified by a prior threat involving poachers. The prosecutor dismissed Williams's account of a dog-induced fall as nonsense.

Dandridge described the 60-second assault as feeling eternal, leaving him physically and psychologically damaged; his victim statement detailed constant pain as a reminder of the event. Although the defence cited Williams's exemplary character and the impact on his business, Recorder Angharad Price condemned the vigilantism. She stated taking the law into one's own hands is never acceptable.

Williams’s wife temporarily took over his licence following the conviction, but the defence argued the business, a major rural employer, could not survive without him. The outcome definitively ends Williams's active role in training, impacting the operations of Evan Williams Racing.