Police drop probe into alleged Fury ‘hate crime’
>> LONDON: Newly crowned world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will not face police action over comments he made about homosexuality, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said late on Thursday.
Fury, 27, has attracted controversy after likening homosexuality to paedophilia, with more than 133,000 people signing a petition calling for his removal from the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
A member of the public had reported Fury to the police on Tuesday for allegedly committing a “hate crime”.
“The circumstances in which these comments were made suggest that no criminal offence has taken place and this matter will not be investigated any further,” a GMP spokesman said.
In a recent interview with the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Fury, who is a born-again Christian, said that three things needed to be accomplished “before the devil comes home”.
“One of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other is paedophilia,” he said.
Manchester-born Fury, who is of traveller heritage and styles himself as the ‘Gypsy King’, has denied being homophobic or sexist and says that his views merely reflect what is written in the Bible.
Meanwhile, Fury has been asked to attend a British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) hearing to explain his controversial comments, the organisation announced on Thursday.
“Mr Fury has been called for an interview in the new year,” BBBC general secretary Robert Smith told Britain’s Press Association. No date has yet been set for the meeting.
Fury has also been accused of sexism after stating that a woman’s place was “in the kitchen and on her back”.