Charges dropped against British journalist

Charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice and fraud were withdrawn against British journalist, Simon Wright, in a Cape Town special World Cup court.

Instead, as had happened earlier to British soccer world cup tourist, Pavlos Joseph, Wright ended up paying a R750 admission of guilt fine for a technical contravention of the Immigration Act.

The Immigration Act violation related to Wright booking Joseph into the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay under an assumed name.

Joseph had earlier made headlines for trespassing into the English team's change room where he confronted former England soccer captain, David Beckham, over the team's poor performance against Algeria.

At the time that Wright booked Joseph into the hotel, the Sunday Mirror for whom Wright works, had contacted Joseph for an exclusive story for which Joseph was to be paid 35-thousand pounds (around R400-thousand).

Wright was anxious to keep Joseph away from other media who also wanted to interview him.

Joseph also paid a R750 admission of guilt fine for trespassing.

The court finally convened on Saturday afternoon instead of the scheduled 9am.

Senior counsel Billy Downer for the State informed Magistrate Joe Magele about the admission of guilt fine and requested that the charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice be "removed from the roll", which amounted to the withdrawal of the charge.