EVER’ FACING SEX ASSAULT TRIAL I just gave the girl a peck.. she was being bullied and I hate that after what my nephew went through
Tears... then I hit wine gums
telling you the truth about what I did, I pecked her because she was called fat and ugly’. I didn’t do anything wrong, I know I didn’t.”
Gazza was put in a holding cell for four hours and questioned for 45 minutes. He had his shoes removed, his fingerprints taken and posed for a mugshot.
But, Gazza says, that wasn’t the only picture. He claims officers asked him to pose for selfies and to relive his classic Euro 96 goal against Scotland.
Gazza goes on: “I was in the back of the police car and they were just talking to me about football.
“On the way to the station they were talking to me about everything, asking me what my time was like playing for Middlesbrough, about the goal I scored in Euro 96.
“Then they were asking me for selfies after letting me go. I couldn’t believe it.”
It was a full six months before Gazza was charged – and his lawyers warned him a conviction would place him on the sex offenders register.
Gazza recalls: “I just said, ‘Oh, God’. I still wasn’t worried, because I thought I had done nothing wrong.
CRYING
“It was only six weeks before the trial when it hit me. A lot of my friends have kids. I thought, ‘If I’m on the sex offenders’ list does that mean I can’t be near children?’ I just started crying.
“I’m like a kid myself. I get on so well with any kids and I love being around them. I act like kids – I’m f***ing worse than them.
“There are so many kids in my life, my nephews, my mates’ kids.
“I play with them every chance I get, I love playing football with them. Then
it started to hit me h a rd and I had sleepless nights.” Desperate to avoid caving in to his drink demons, Gazza turned to frenzied exercise sessions.
“I would be up all night doing sit-ups and squats or on the bike,” he says. “Anything to keep my mind busy
“Those weeks before the trial were hard but I had to stay strong.
“I didn’t want people around me, my friends and family, to crumble.
“I just kept it to myself – that’s the way I am.
“Maybe that’s why through my life I’ve kept it to myself and ended up hitting the bottle.
“I thought if I get on the sex offenders’ register, people are not going to work with me. It was difficult but I had good RELIEVED Gazza broke down in tears after he was cleared – then tucked into his favourite sweets.
He reveals: “After the verdict I didn’t want a beer. I was too exhausted.
“I had two packets of wine gums. That’s as close as I got to drinking.”
Gazza is seen above after the verdict with agent Katie Davies.
He goes on: “I was relying on 12 strangers to clear me. I was sat in the court for four days and I was listening and knowing everyone was judging me. It was so hard. “I felt like I was alone in the box. “Waiting for the verdict was horrendous. I was praying that the jury saw common sense. When the verdicts were read my legs buckled and I just cried. The bloke next to me just told me to breathe.” people around me and I stayed strong. It’s been a year of hell.”
Gazza – who has a son and two stepchildren from his marriage to Sheryl Gascoigne – was branded a liar in court by prosecutors. But his lawyers produced images showing him kissing stars and dignitaries down the years – from Princess Diana to Wayne Rooney.
British Transport Police yesterday denied Gazza’s allegation that any officer had asked him for selfies.
Gazza, meanwhile, is relishing 2020 after a year of hell. He earns a living from live shows and Q&As and is working on an autobiography. And he will be at Euro 2020 – supporting the England squad as an official UEFA ambassador.
Being on the sex offenders register, that’s not me... I cried when I thought it might happen