Redknapp’s son blames droopy eyes inherited from dad for drug-drive arrest
HARRY Redknapp’s elder son told a court yesterday that the droopy eyes he inherited from his father made police think he was drug-driving.
Officers stopped Mark Redknapp in his £40,000 Mercedes near his parents’ home at Sandbanks in Dorset.
They suspected the 49-year-old was high on drugs because his eyes were droopy and he kept cleaning his teeth with his tongue.
A roadside breath test showed the former West Ham manager’s son was 15 times the drug-drive limit, testing positive for a cocaine derivative. But Redknapp told a court his eyes always looked saggy – just like his father’s.
Lucy, his wife of 12 years, backed up his claim and also said he was very health conscious.
She said: ‘Most of Mark’s time is spent with the family. He does not go out very much, we spend time together as a family instead.
‘Mark doesn’t associate with people who do drugs. He has a close group of friends who have the same lifestyle as him.
‘He has baggy eyes along with his father, it is hereditary. It gets worse when they are tired. I find it inconceivable that he has been accused of this. This accusation has been upsetting for all of us and has taken its toll on Mark.’
A friend of Redknapp, the former England rugby player Paul Sackey, also came to his defence. In a statement he said he had known the defendant for ten years and had never known him to take drugs. They had met two nights before his arrest and they had stuck to lager, he said. Giving evidence, Redknapp, a property developer, told Poole magistrates he was arrested by two officers. He added: ‘The gentleman officer asked my name and was speaking to me about football and my father – what he’s up to now and that sort of thing.
‘However, it did seem that the lady officer who was with him took a disliking to me straight away.
‘She went to the back of her car and took what I now know is a swab. She took a scrape from my
‘Gets worse when he is tired’
mouth. She returned after about 15 minutes she told me there had been a slight change of colour and she would place me under arrest.
‘I told them I have not done drugs and never have.
‘Unfortunately having droopy, heavy eyes is a genetic condition – my father has them and so do I. I have had an operation on them in the past but they were definitely not bloodshot.’
A blood test was taken at the station. Redknapp said he told officers he had a phobia of needles but found himself put in a room where one was on show.
Charles Nightingale, prosecuting, said the Crown disputed Redknapp’s version of events.
He was stopped by police in his Mercedes C63 saloon in the Canford Cliffs suburb of Poole at 8pm on April 2, 2018.
The blood test showed he had 749 micrograms of the cocaine derivative benzoylecgonine in his system. The legal limit is 50.
Redknapp, from Poole, denies a charge of driving a vehicle while over the drug limit.
He is the elder brother of Liverpool star turned-TV pundit Jamie and the cousin of Chelsea coach and former England player Frank Lampard.
The case continues.