Harry Maguire yelled ‘F*** Greek police, f*** the Greek civilisation’ as police tried to detain him in Mykonos, one of the arresting officers has claimed.
The £85 million Manchester United centre-half was last week convicted of assaulting police and attempted bribery after officers arrived to break up a brawl outside a bar on the island of Mykonos.
Maguire has appealed his convictions and will face a full retrial after his legal team filed an appeal against the decisions last week.
In a statement printed in Greek publication Protothema, one of the arresting officers on the night of the scrap recalled Mr Maguire, 27, launching a torrent of abuse as he was placed under arrest.
The statement alleges Mr Maguire shouted: ‘F*** you all, f*** off, f*** the Greek police, f*** policemen, f*** Greece, f*** the Greek civilisation, I don’t give a s***’.
The statement adds that Maguire, ‘attacked the sergeant…he pushed him away and kicked him in the right leg causing swelling of his left and right tibia.’
One of the arresting officers on the night of a brawl, which lead to Harry Maguire (pictured) being convicted of assaulting an officer and attempted bribery, has said he launched a torrent of abuse at officers
In this Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020 file photo, England soccer player Harry Maguire leaves a court building on the Aegean island of Syros, Greece
Harry Maguire, 27, claims the fight had broken out after his sister Daisy, 20, (pictured) was drugged
‘The third defendant [Joe] also attacked the above police officer hitting him in the face with his fists causing him to gently swelling of the upper right lip,’ the statement reads
The officer claims the violence continued once the group were taken to the police station.
Mr Maguire, the officer said, ‘pushed hard and threw the sergeant to the ground’, leaving the policeman with ‘abrasions on his right forearm, sciatica and right back pain’.
It was once inside the police station that Mr Maguire bribed the officers, the statement reads. He is alleged to have said he could pay them off because he was the captain of Manchester United.
Mr Maguire insists that he was defending his sister Daisy, 20, from two Albanian men who injected her with a drug, claiming he thought he was being kidnapped by fake police and tried to run away ‘in fear for his life’ when the officers arrived.
The prosecutor who brought the case against Maguire said yesterday he ‘doubts’ the footballer feared for his life during his arrest, as Greek police say they treated him ‘like just another drunk Brit’.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain yesterday, prosecutor Ioannis Paradissis said police did identify themselves to Mr Maguire, who he claims is now using his fortune to evade responsibility for his actions.
Mr Paradissis told the programme ‘I doubt he feared for his life’, adding: ‘The policemen heard some kind of commotion, argument going on and they just went there to break up the argument, they just went there for help.’
The prosecutor also said eyewitness claimed officers immediately revealed they were from the police – something Mr Maguire says did not happen.
The Manchester United captain has claimed that plain clothes officers refused to identify themselves during his arrest.
Maguire told the BBC in an explosive interview last week he thought he was being kidnapped by fake police and tried to run away ‘in fear for his life’ when the officers arrived.
But one of the officers has poured scorn on the story told by the £190,000-per-week England player, telling The Sun: ‘We didn’t treat him differently to other drunk British guys.
‘This was just a drunk guy getting in a fight. We deal with it a lot. But it has turned into something else with everything he says.
‘Why would eight police surround him and not identify themselves? We’d lose our jobs.’
The England defender announced on Wednesday that he is appealing the decision made against him in a court on the island of Syros and now faces a retrial.
Mr Maguire, who asked the BBC to keep his current location secret, vowed to fight to clear his name and declared: ‘I’m really confident the truth will be told.’
A shaken Mr Maguire said: ‘My initial thought was that we are being kidnapped. We got on our knees and put our hands in the air and then they just started hitting us in the legs saying my career’s over, no more football, you won’t play again.
‘And at this point I thought there was no chance these are police, I don’t know who they are, so I tried to run away, I feared for my life.’
The England star insisted he hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t owe an apology ‘to anybody’.
Mr Maguire said: ‘I don’t feel like I owe an apology to anybody, an apology is for when you’ve done something wrong.
‘I regret being in the situation. Obviously the situation’s made it difficult, I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world so I regret putting the fans and the club through this.’
The world’s most expensive defender also denied claims he bribed police officers calling the statement read out in court ‘ridiculous’.
Mr Maguire was asked by the BBC’s Dan Roan if he accepted that he was asking for trouble by going to a busy bar on the popular tourist island.
He said: ‘No it could have happened anywhere. I love Greece. I think footballers get a bit of stick for trying to stay away from everything, but its’ not how I want to live my life.’
The football star – who has been dropped from Gareth Southgate’s England squad – described what it was like spending two nights in custody.
He said: ‘It was horrible it’s nothing I ever want to do again, I don’t wish it on anybody. Its the first time I’ve ever been inside a prison.’