Sheffield boxer charged over mobile phone footage

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-trained-champion-boxer-taunts-drug-user-in-disgusting-video-1-9354235A Sheffield-trained World Champion boxer has been charged with misconduct over mobile phone footage showing him taunting a desperate drug user.
Billy Joe SaundersBilly Joe Saunders
Billy Joe Saunders

WBO middleweight world champion Billy Joe Saunders, who has held the title for three years, has been charged with misconduct by the British Boxing Board of Control over a video described by the police as '˜sickening'.

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Sheffield boxer apologies over '˜disgusting' video showing him taunting drug use...

It shows the 30-year-old offering a drug user £150 of crack cocaine in return for her performing a sex act on his friend or punching a stranger.

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The BBBC has ordered Saunders to appear before the Stewards of Board on a misconduct charge next week.

A police probe is also under way, with officers looking at a range of possible offences including offering to supply Class A drugs, assault, aiding and abetting an assault and public order offences.

Saunders, who trains at the Ingle Gym in Wincobank, has suffered a backlash over the mobile phone footage, which has gone viral on social media.

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It shows the boxing champion taunting a 37-year-old drug user after he pulled up alongside her in Nottingham in his £250,000 Rolls Royce.

While sat behind the wheel of his luxury car, he led the drug user to believe he was carrying drugs and laughed as he asked her what she would do in return for a fix.

Saunders, who defends his world title in a fight in Boston next month, was captured asking the woman how much she wanted the drug and if she would perform a sex act on his friend, who was sat next to him in the car.

Shortly before he drove off while laughing, without any drugs having been exchanged or sex acts performed, Saunders was filmed encouraging the woman to '˜punch' an innocent member of the public in return for drugs.

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Another friend filmed the entire exchange from the back of the car.

Robert Smith, General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, said the footage was '˜disgusting'.

Saunders, posting on Twitter, apologises and said his actions were '˜banter' which '˜went wrong'.

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