Boycott in knighthood storm over battered lover
GEOFFREY Boycott yesterday said he did not ‘give a toss’ about criticism of his knighthood as calls mounted for him to be stripped of the honour.
Domestic abuse charities have attacked Theresa May over the decision to give the former England cricket star a gong in her resignation honours list.
They said that his award should be removed because of his 1998 conviction in France for beating then girlfriend Margaret Moore in a hotel on the Riviera.
Domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid’s co- acting chief executive Adina Claire said it was ‘extremely disappointing’ that Boycott had been given a knighthood.
She said: ‘Celebrating a man who was convicted for assaulting his partner sends a dangerous message – that domestic abuse is not taken seriously as a crime.’
But when presenter Martha Kearney raised Miss Claire’s comments during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, he replied: ‘It’s 25 years ago, so you can take your political nature and do whatever you want with it.
‘You want to talk to me about my knighthood, it’s very nice of you to have me, but I couldn’t give a toss.’ Yorkshireman Boycott has always denied the assault.
Computer consultant Mrs Moore suffered bruising to her forehead and blackened eyes in the assault at the hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes in October 1996.
Boycott, who was fined £5,000 and given a threemonth suspended prison sentence, has accused her of putting a ‘stain on my name’ and maintained her injuries were sustained through an accidental slip and fall.
But public prosecutor JeanYves Duval rejected Boycott’s claims, saying the injuries were ‘ absolutely incompatible’ with an accident and that the cricketer’s lawyer JeanLuc Cardona did not stand up to examination.
Yesterday Boycott again insisted he was innocent on the Today programme, telling Miss Kearney it was ‘very difficult to prove your innocence in another country, another language’. Later, during an interview on Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC2 programme yesterday, Miss Claire said she believed Boycott’s knighthood ‘should be taken away’.
Furious Boycott later refused to appear on flagship BBC programmes in an apparent protest at the line of questioning, it was claimed.
Sources said pre-arranged interviews with BBC Breakfast and Radio 5 Live had to be shelved, with bosses said to be angry given the payments he takes from the broadcaster for his regular slots on Test Match Special.
Other campaign groups have also criticised the decision to award him a knighthood.
Women’s Equality UK said: ‘It is astonishing and hypocritical that Theresa May introduced the Domestic Abuse Bill as her last- ditch attempt at a domestic legacy while also approving a knighthood for a man convicted of domestic abuse.’ MP Dawn Butler, Labour’s Women and Equalities spokesman, said the move was ‘an insult to victims and survivors of domestic violence’, adding: ‘Boris Johnson should rescind his knighthood today.’ And former deputy Labour leader harriet harman told Sky News: ‘This is an honour bestowed by Theresa May and she has campaigned against the horror of domestic violence. So to give an honour to somebody who is convicted of blacking the eyes and bruising the face of their girlfriend, I am very surprised and baffled how this could have happened.’
But Sir Geoffrey CliftonBrown, Tory MP for the Cotswolds, said: ‘It was a very serious and very stupid thing that he did 20 years ago, but there comes a point where people should be rehabilitated from their offences.’
A No 10 spokesman yesterday said: ‘It’s a long-standing convention that the outgoing Prime Minister can draw up a resignation or dissolution list of honours and it is customary for the new PM to forward the list without amendment to the Queen for approval.’
‘Insult to victims and survivors’