Boxer Scott Harrison leaves prison

Published on Wednesday 31 December 2008 10:26

FORMER world boxing champion Scott Harrison was released from prison today in time to celebrate New Year.

The 31-year-old was freed after serving four months behind bars.

He emerged from the main gate of Barlinnie prison in Glasgow just after 8am, dressed in a grey suit and white shirt and carrying a plastic bag with his belongings.

He refused to comment but gave a thumbs up sign as he was driven away in a red taxi.

Harrison was jailed earlier this year for a total of 10 months on a series of charges.

The boxer was jailed on September 2 for two months for assaulting his girlfriend and a police officer, four months for drink driving and two months for breaking a night time curfew, a condition of bail while drink driving.

He received an additional two months the following week after he admitted punching a stranger in the face on a night out.

His prison term was reduced by two months earlier in December and he was released today after serving half his sentence.

At the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh Lord Kingarth ruled that the sentences for the drink driving and bail breach could run concurrently rather than consecutively, reducing that particular sentence to four months.

In the drink driving incident the boxer from Cambuslang near Glasgow was caught nearly four times the limit as he drove down Laurieston Road, in the Gorbals area of the city at about 9pm on August 29.

Officers found he had 137micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.

The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

In the assault incident, Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Harrison hit his partner Stacy Gardner, after she went to his Cambuslang home on the evening of May 26 to comfort him following the death of his uncle.

A neighbour witnessed the assault and called the police and Harrison assaulted one of two officers who arrived to investigate.

The court heard that the boxer had been receiving counselling for an alcohol problem.

Harrison is a former WBO world featherweight champion but has not fought in three years.

His licence has since been revoked by the British Boxing Board of Control.