You’re still a champ , Dazzler...
EGAN SALUTES PAL WHO DIED IN FLAT
A court heard both officers were called to Atkinson’s dad’s home after the footballer tried to smash his way in.
Jurors were told Atkinson had been “significantly unwell” due to kidney failure, high blood pressure and heart disease and had started “losing touch with reality”.
Yesterday, Mr Atkinson’s partner Karen Wright said she had been due to drive him to a clinic in Cheshire for an afternoon appointment on August 15.
Bettley-Smith denies assault, claiming she acted lawfully in Meadow Close while trying to protect others.
A CLOSE pal of tragic Olympic boxing hero Darren Sutherland paid tribute to him on the 13th anniversary of his tragic death.
Kenneth Egan, who fought at the 2008 Olympics with Darren, remembered his friend yesterday, who died tragically 13 years ago in 2009.
Kenny (40), posted a poignant photo of himself with The Dazzler and tweeted: “Happiest day of our lives, qualifying for our Olympic Games 2008.
Sad
“Thirteen years gone. Still missed.” Darren, who a year earlier won a bronze medal in Beijing, died after he had hanged himself, an inquest found, but his parents questioned this verdict.
Kenny yesterday told The Star that he wanted to
“recognise that we shared a special period together in our lives, but sadly this was cut short”.
Darren, from Co Meath, was just 27 when his body was found at his flat in Bromley, London, on September 14, 2009.
The inquest at Croydon Coroner’s Court in 2012 that his wrists were tied and that Darren had been having trouble sleeping and was seeing a counsellor.
The inquest also heard that he was
“feeling low” and “losing confidence in his boxing” and had mentioned suicide in the weeks before he died. Darren’s physiologist Joe Dunbar, who claimed the boxer was in a “spiral of decline”, said: “I was not surprised that he killed himself.”
But Darren’s parents went on RTE’s The Late Late Show a week after his son’s tragic death to reject claims that their son was depressed.
Dad Tony said: “He was not a person with depression. I’m absolutely
100 per cent sure my son didn’t suffer any sort of depression.”