A man who fell from the upper tier of a stand during a football match and injured fans below has been found not guilty of assault.

Maidstone United supporter John Ryan fell on to Joanne Peters and her partner Aaron Rose at Ipswich Town’s Portman Road ground during an FA Cup clash in January 2024.

Ryan, 62, of Railway Street, Chatham, Kent, denied one count of assault by beating and one count of actual bodily harm and told Ipswich Crown Court he had been unable to stop himself during goal celebrations.

Ryan could be seen crying in the dock as the jury returned verdicts of not guilty to both charges and said afterwards “it’s been very stressful”.

Peters had been in tears when she told the court she initially thought the supporters’ box behind her had collapsed and she thought she “could have died”.

Ryan had been one of thousands of Maidstone United supporters who saw their non-league side win 2-1 over Ipswich, who were heading to promotion from the Championship that season.

He told the court the game had been “the biggest match in the club’s history” and he had been celebrating a “special” goal.

The jury was told he had been in Cobbold Stand upper tier when he fell, slid down the sloping roof that covers the boxes, and landed on the Ipswich supporters below.

Ryan told the jury he had been unsure if he had been pushed or his foot had slipped when he fell.

Prosecutor Simon Gladwell previously told the trial Ryan had drunk five cans of lager ahead of the match.

Peters said she had suffered “elements of whiplash” as well as numbness in her hands and internal bruising, while Rose told the jury he had been kicked in the head.

Rose believed Ryan had been drunk and told the trial “it wouldn’t take a scientist to work it out”.

Two years after the incident, Ryan was back in Ipswich for his trial at the crown court, which is just across the road from the stadium’s Sir Alf Ramsey stand.

Speaking to reporters outside court, Ryan said: “When you score a goal like that the last thing on your mind is what’s going to happen.

“I just remember going down the stairs and I hit that barrier, fell over it and that was it.”

Asked if he would like to say anything to Peters and Rose, Ryan said: “I’m sorry, it was an accident.

“I’m sorry it happened, what more can I say?”

Last month, Ryan was sentenced at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court along with two other men for assaulting a man at Halling railway station in Kent.

He was given a three-year order banning him from any football ground in the UK, along with a community order, British Transport Police said, external.

Shortly after Ryan’s fall, Ipswich Town introduced glass screens at the bottom of the upper tier of the Cobbold Stand to try to improve safety.

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