Scandals & Feuds ·
Ken Richardson Jailed for Plot to Burn Belle Vue Stand
The former Doncaster Rovers owner denied involvement but was convicted over the 1995 fire. Alan Kristiansen, who admitted starting it with two accomplices, became the prosecution’s key witness.
On 29 June 1995, petrol was sprayed beneath the main stand at Doncaster Rovers’ Belle Vue ground and set alight. The fire caused damage put at £100,000 to the roof and seats. In January 1999, Ken Richardson, a major shareholder at the time of the attack, was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court of conspiracy to commit arson. He was later sentenced to four years in prison.
Prosecutors said Richardson had offered £10,000 to Alan Kristiansen, a Newcastle private investigator and former SAS soldier, to carry out the attack. Kristiansen and his accomplices started the fire. The following evening, he left a message on Richardson’s answering machine: “The job’s been done.”
Kristiansen also left his mobile phone at the scene. Police found it, traced him and arrested him. After admitting the offence, he became the prosecution’s key witness against Richardson. Richardson denied involvement, saying he loved the club and that a fire could only have ruined it. His defence accused Kristiansen of telling a “pack of lies” and suggested that he had deliberately made the mistakes that led to his arrest.
The prosecution was less certain about the motive. Financial gain was suggested, and prosecutors argued that Richardson intended to force Rovers to move to a new stadium, but they could not say for certain why the attack had been ordered. Richardson had been involved in lengthy, unsuccessful negotiations to sell the ground’s lease to Doncaster Council so that a new stadium could be built.
At sentencing, Richardson’s barrister, Gilbert Gray QC, said the five weeks his client had spent in custody since conviction had seriously affected his mental and physical health. “He is a mere shadow of his former self,” Gray said. He maintained that Richardson wanted the best for Rovers and rejected the suggestion that he had been seeking a large insurance payout.
Judge Peter Baker QC described Richardson as “a sorry figure in the dock”, but said he had exercised great influence over the club and “used money to set in train serious crime”. Richardson, 61, showed no emotion as the four-year sentence was imposed.
Kristiansen pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and received a 12-month prison sentence. Ian Hay and Alan Cracknall, who helped him start the fire, pleaded guilty to arson. Each received a nine-month sentence suspended for two years.
By the time of Richardson’s conviction, he had relinquished control of Rovers following their relegation from the Football League in 1998. For Maureen Stephenson of the supporters’ club, the verdict came too late. “I’m glad that justice has been done but I just wish that it could have happened earlier and we could have been saved from relegation,” she said. “This man destroyed the club.”