Disgraced ex-Leeds United director Simon Morris guilty of blackmail plot

Simon Morris, whose fortune was once estimated at £69m, instructed his 21½-stone bodyguard, Johnathon Ashworth, to intimidate fellow Leeds businessman Hedley Manton into repaying a disputed £100,000 loan.

Mr Manton was said to be left “shaking and pale” after Ashworth visited him three times in six days, only a month before Morris was served with a bankruptcy petition over creditors’ claims totalling £3.5m.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court took less than an hour yesterday to find Morris, 34, and Ashworth, 51, guilty of conspiring to blackmail Mr Manton between March 1 and April 1, 2009.

Morris, formerly of Ling Lane, Scarcroft, Leeds, looked shocked as the unanimous verdicts were announced.

Ashworth, of Kestrel Close, Hyde, Cheshire, also faces sentence for two weapons possession charges, to which he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Judge Brian Forster QC granted the pair bail but warned them they would be going to jail. He said: “I will only be able to impose a custodial sentence having regard to the authorities and the guidance given to judges in this type of case.”

The men are due to be sentenced on October 24. The offence carries a maximum jail term of 14 years.

A six-day trial heard that Morris instructed Ashworth, a former doorman with “biceps that appeared to be the size of an average man’s thighs”, to secure the return of £100,000 he had lent Mr Manton to help buy a house.

Mr Manton had refused to repay the loan following the collapse of a Leeds-based student property firm he and Morris had owned.

The dispute was subject to county court proceedings, but Morris asked Ashworth to do “whatever you can to help” to get the money back, the jury was told.