Boycott found guilty of hitting lover 20 times (21 Jan 1998)

Wednesday 21 January 1998

Boycott found guilty of hitting lover 20 times

By Deirdre Mooney in Grasse, and Colin Randall

GEOFFREY Boycott, the former Yorkshire and England opening batsman, was given a suspended prison sentence and fined £5,100 yesterday for beating up his lover in a French Riviera hotel.

Boycott, 57, was alleged to have pinned down Margaret Moore and punched her at least 20 times after she threw his clothes and washbag out of the window of their room during a row at the Hotel du Cap at Antibes.

In addition to a three-month jail sentence, suspended for five years, and the fine, he was ordered to pay symbolic compensation of one franc (about 10p) to Miss Moore, 45.

Boycott launched an immediate appeal against the conviction for assault. His lawyer, Richard Knaggs, said the move meant, under French law, that the court's decision had been set aside pending a further hearing.

The former cricketer, now a television commentator, was sentenced in his absence in the French town of Grasse, near Cannes. He had sent a fax seeking an adjournment because he was away at a cricket tournament.

But Judge Marc Juando, president of the court, expressed surprise at his failure to attend and asked with undisguised sarcasm: "How can we interrupt so noble an activity as cricket?" Aircraft were available all over the world, he said, and Boycott should have made an effort to be present.

Speaking first in French and then in English through an interpreter, Boycott's former lover said that a short break at the Hotel du Cap in October 1996 turned sour when they argued over money.

Miss Moore said Boycott was very mean and that she had been left to pay hotel and restaurant bills. During the row, Boycott told her that he was going to the hotel pool. After failing to find him there, she was told by a concierge that he was checking out and went to their room to find him packing.

"I told him he could not just leave like that and he started shouting," she said. "I asked him what he was doing. I threw some of his clothes and his washbag out of the window."

Boycott's response, she said, was to seize her by the wrist, breaking her bracelet, and throw her to the ground. "He grabbed me by the arm and hit me 20 times or more," she said. "He is very strong. I was screaming and screaming."

She said Boycott had assaulted her on previous occasions. "After this attack both my eyes were closed and I was blinded," she said. "I thought I had lost my retina." She also claimed that the former cricketer threatened to kill her if she told newspapers what had happened.

Miss Moore's lawyer, StŽphane Choukroun, described Boycott as a cad and barbarian. "He is someone who is violent, particularly violent," he said. "She has asked for nothing more than justice be done and for him to recognise what he did. You don't hit women."

Miss Moore said afterwards: "I'm very pleased justice has been done. He beat me up very badly and almost destroyed my eyesight. His behaviour is appalling. He has never even apologised. I think the BBC ought to be very careful about their contracts with public personalities, who should be setting an example."

In one of two faxes to the court, Boycott supplied a copy of a statement he gave to the Sun newspaper in November 1996, denying assault and claiming that Miss Moore went "out of control" after he refused to marry her. "She was hysterical and in a rage, throwing my private papers, clothes and belongings out of the window," he wrote. "I tried to restrain her and she slipped and fell, hitting the right side of her head on the floor."

He admitted that he could get angry and swear, but said he was not a bad or violent man. "I don't go around assaulting men or women," he said.

Boycott said last night through his solicitor: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." He said that all the allegations and statements made by Miss Moore were groundless.

Mr Knaggs said Boycott was not away as the court has been led to believe, but staying at an undisclosed address in Britain. The fax had been sent by a Paris lawyer and was an "old letter" prepared when it was thought that he would be away on tour. Boycott had been under the impression that yesterday's hearing would be adjourned.

Both the BBC and Sky said last night that Boycott's commentaries during England's tour of the West Indies would be unaffected by the case. TWI, which supplies footage for Sky's live coverage, said he was expected in Jamaica on Sunday.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)