SHAMED soccer star Danny Simpson was today warned he faces jail for trying to throttle the mother of his child – leaving her “cowering” in the corner of her living room.
The Leicester City bad-boy was caught by cops called to the house pinning Steph Ward to the floor with his hands around her throat – minutes after calling her “a slag”.
The right back – who dated former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos – had to be dragged off Steph while she was left “crying hysterically and cowering” in the corner of the living room.
But the former Man United and Newcastle defender tried to wriggle out of the charges by claiming the police officer was lying about what he saw.
Yesterday he was found guilty of common assault and told he may be jailed when sentenced next month after the judge said “strangling someone, or attempting to, is akin to using a weapon”.
Simpson, 28, shook his head as the district judge said she found his account “unworthy of belief”.
The court heard the Premier League ace – who has a young daughter with ex Steph – spent Christmas together for the “sake of his child” – and after it went well decided to go out for dinner three days later.
But in a 999 call played to the court Simpson can be heard calling Steph names while she screamed “get off me, get off me”.
A cop who arrived at Steph’s home, in Worsley, Greater Manchester, just after the call walked into the house to find Simpson “straddling across her with his hands firmly places around her neck”.
PC Gareth Hughes told Manchester Magistrates’ Court he arrived outside the house and could immediately hear the “screams of a female screaming ‘get off me, get off me’”.
He said: “She sounded very distressed. The screams carried on for a short time then they were silenced and I could hear a choking sound.”
PC Hughes said he was “extremely concerned” for Steph’s safety and so wrestled Simpson and arrested him.
He said Simpson “angrily demanded that the female didn’t say anything” and continued to be “aggressive”.
A female officer, PC Platt, told the court she arrived as Simpson was being handcuffed and said she could see Steph “cowering” in the corner of the lounge.
She said: “She was hysterical, sobbing. She was literally bent double sobbing into her knees. She was cowering and making herself invisible in the room.”
Earlier the District Judge ruled an account given to cops by Steph just 20 minutes after the incident was “inadmissible”.
District Judge Alexandra Simmons said she could not be sure the statement was “sufficiently spontaneous”.
Prosecuting Ms Kate Gaskell said Steph had told cops that although she and Simpson were not an item they had spent the “best part of Christmas together” for the sake of their daughter.
Four days later the pair had gone out for dinner where Simpson downed “two bottles of red wine”.
She said they began arguing over Simpson texting other girls.
She told cops she needed time to consider making a formal statement against Simpson because she was worried about the impact on his career and her daughter.
Almost a month after the incident Steph made a statement to police denying that Simpson had assaulted her.
The eight-minute 999 call was played to the court during which she can be heard begging Simpson to leave, screaming: “I am not yours to touch” and “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
But giving evidence in court yesterday, Simpson said he had not laid a hand on Steph.
He said the pair had begun arguing over text messages he had sent to a girl some three years earlier and the police had walked in while Steph was sat on the sofa and he was standing over her.
Dressed in a black suit and white shirt the dad-of-one said he had been in a relationship with Steph for eight or nine years “on and off” before they split just a few months before the incident in December 2014.
Describing their relationship he said: “We have problems but we did get the best we could because of having a child.”
He said: “As a mum and dad if we can be amicable for our little girl we want to be. We opened presents together as a family on Christmas Day and it was nice. I had a game on the 28th so I said we could go for dinner and she could get a babysitter.
“We were arguing over nothing. It was over some messages years ago. I also spent a lot of money on her Christmas present on shoes for her and I was saying I wanted them back. From me trying to get the shoes I took a hit off her. I remember her foot kick at me as I was grabbing the shoes.”
He said PC Hughes’s version was “not true”.
Finding Simpson guilty District Judge Simmons said she thought Steph was “vulnerable because of her domestic circumstances”.