English soccer star Steven Gerrard’s father, Paul, has had to come to the defense of a man in England who is on trial for a robbery he says he didn’t commit. The elder Gerrard wrote a letter in defense of John Kinsella, stating that the stand up citizen acted as an buffer when Steven was being threatened by a creatively-named thug named “The Psycho” who demanded part of his £120,000-pound a week salary, lest Gerrard wanted to get shot in the legs. Enter Kinsella who stopped the harassment, although we’re not sure how. We really hope it was in exchange for helping TP come up with a better nickname.

“[The Psycho] was trying to extort a large amount of money from Steven. We immediately contacted the police and asked for protection. We were introduced by a friend to John Kinsella. John then reassured me and my family he would resolve our nightmare.We have never had any more problems from the Liverpool underworld. Steven and I have total respect for John.”

Yeah, about that…

Kinsella is on trial with two other men accused of stealing £41,000 of goods from a lorry depot in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 19 March 2006.Their alleged haul included £8,000 of Easter eggs and another £33,000 of crisps and detergents.

Really? Easter eggs? We don’t know which we’d rather have—a guy named “The Psycho” terrorizing us or an association with a guy known for stealing enough pastel eggs to keep a ton of kids hunting for a month.

Fixer ‘kept gangster off Gerrard’ [BBC]
Image [BBC]