Scott Harrison sentenced to another four years in prison after brothel assault

BOXER Scott Harrison has been sentenced to four years in a Spanish jail after being found guilty of assaulting three men at a brothel near Malaga.

• Boxer Scott Harrison has been sentenced to four years in jail after assaulting three men near a brothel

• Sentence casts doubt on his ability to challenge for world title, but Harrison is expected to appeal

The Scot received two years each for the two most serious assaults and a fine for the lesser attack on the third victim.

Father-of-three Harrison, 35, is expected to lodge an appeal to avoid an immediate return to prison and allow him to go ahead with a third comeback fight in Glasgow on 1 December.

He was freed from prison in Spain in September last year after completing a 30-month sentence for a 2005 assault near Malaga.

Yesterday’s sentence, after a one-day trial, followed his arrest over the assault on three Spaniards at a brothel called Oxigeno, in Alhaurin el Grande, near Malaga, in May 2007.

The boxer’s cousins Edward and David McGill were also arrested but have yet to be located and tried.

The victims included brothel owner Francisco Gonzalez, who told three trial judges the boxer had punched his front tooth out as he tried to defend two customers that he claimed Harrison and his cousins were attacking.

In a nine-page sentencing document published yesterday, lead judge Julian Cruz said: “Scott Harrison is not a first-time offender and his criminal record reflects a prior assault conviction.

“We’re also taking into account the dangerous nature of this criminal attack, in terms of where Francisco was hit, the serious injuries inflicted on the victims, and the fact one of the accused was a professional boxer with extensive experience when it comes to fighting.”

Harrison was sentenced to two years in jail for each of the assaults on Gonzalez and 39-year-old construction worker Salvador Jimenez, who was off work for 77 days with injuries to his knees, wrist and elbow.

The boxer was also fined £960 after being convicted of a minor assault on Mr Jimenez’s friend Rafael Sainz, who killed himself in January 2009.

Harrison, from Cambuslang, was also ordered to pay nearly £8,300 in compensation to his victims, including £1,600 to the brothel owner for the loss of his tooth.

Harrison’s defence lawyer, Damian Canovas, was unavailable for comment yesterday but has previously indicated he would appeal against a guilty verdict and prison sentence.

The Scot protested his innocence over the fight at the brothel during his trial.

Mr Gonzalez told the hearing the former world champion had attacked him as he tried to defend the other two Spaniards inside the sex club in an unprovoked attack.

The Scots trio are said to have waited outside the club and attacked the pair with their fists, feet, bottles and stones as they left to find an ambulance.

During the trial, Harrison said: “All I tried to do was escape when people I’ve never met before started throwing bottles at us for reasons I didn’t know.

“I’ve no idea how the men who claimed we attacked them suffered their injuries.”

The judges trying Harrison dismissed his claims in their sentencing document, describing Mr Gonzalez’s account of events as “totally sincere”.