Sad day for Best

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 56

Sad day for Best

PA London The former soccer star, George Best, is in custody after a day in which he was charged with assaulting a policeman and taken to hospital after a collapse. The former Manchester United and Northern Ireland winger was involved in a scuffle early yesterday when police called at his London home to arrest him for failing to appear in court on a drink-driving charge.

Best, aged 38, ran through gardens alongside his home in Oakley Street, Chelsea, when a policeman called at 9.30 a.m. He was arrested at a nearby address. He was taken to Chelsea police station and later transferred to Cannon Row. In the early afternoon, further charges were put to him -accusing him of assaulting a police constable and failing to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court on Saturday.

Police said that after the charges had been put, Best collapsed in the charge room and was taken to Westminster Hospital where he received treatment. He was discharged within an hour and taken back to Cannon Row, where he was examined by a police surgeon. Police said Best was spending the night in a cell and would appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court today to face the two charges brought yesterday and the alleged drink-driving offence, for which he was arrested early on Saturday morning. Neither police nor officials at Westminster Hospital would give details of the cause of Best’s collapse or the treatment he received. Best’s manager, Mr Bill McMurdo, said later that Best had told him the police surgeon found bruising to his chest. He said he had arranged for the former international to be represented by a solicitor in court. Mr McMurdo said that although Best was described on the charge sheet as unemployed, he is in fact a consultant for George Best Management Ltd, a promotions and public relations company. He added that Best was living alone at his flat in Oakley Street.