{"id":315762,"date":"2025-12-14T15:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/315762\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T15:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:21:07","slug":"former-england-boxing-head-coach-jailed-for-sexual-assaults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/315762\/","title":{"rendered":"Former England boxing head coach jailed for sexual assaults"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Former England boxing head coach Michael Driscoll tore at a woman’s clothes after stripping to his socks and pants in a hotel room in May 2019.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Driscoll, 56, was described as behaving like a seventies sexist when he told police the woman tried to seduce him in black lingerie.\n<\/p>\n

\n A jury found him guilty of two sexual assaults on the woman who cannot be named for legal reasons.\n<\/p>\n

\n The woman told police Driscoll stripped when she turned away to take a phone call.\n<\/p>\n

\n When she turned back around the award winning coach was only wearing his pants and socks.\n<\/p>\n

\n The former boxer picked her up and swung her onto a hotel bed before getting on top of her, the woman said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I was trying to fight him off,” she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n She described how Driscoll “slobbered all over her” as he grabbed her and tried to pull her clothes off.\n<\/p>\n

\n The award winning boxing coach was told his offending represented a spectacular fall from grace.\n<\/p>\n

\n Recorder Amy Packham told Driscoll his description of the woman as a sexual temptress in a short, black negligee was a cheap, pornographic fantasy.\n<\/p>\n

\n “She described fighting you off and asking you to stop,” she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I do not accept that she was consenting.\n<\/p>\n

\n “You undressed to your underwear, threw her to the bed, ripping her clothes and slobbering all over her.\n<\/p>\n

\n “She was terrified you were trying to rape her.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The second sexual assault took place a number of months later, the court heard.\n<\/p>\n

\n “She heard you had been boasting, which she found utterly humiliating,” Ms Packham said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Describing her as a sexual temptress knowing full well it was nothing like you were describing.\n<\/p>\n

\n “You groped her.\n<\/p>\n

\n “When she turned round, you were laughing at her.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The attacks had impacted every sphere of her life, Ms Packham said.\n<\/p>\n

\n In her victim statement, the woman said she found it difficult to describe the impact the assaults had on her life.\n<\/p>\n

\n She has flashbacks and nightmares, Lewes Crown Court, sitting in Brighton, heard.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ian Hope for the Crown said the woman hoped Driscoll will not be able to abuse other women or girls.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I’m here to be a voice for other woman and girls and to protect them from him,” she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n Hannah Edwards for the defence said Driscoll has lost everything.\n<\/p>\n

\n “The biggest punishment he will face is he has lost his livelihood and the career he has worked on for 25 years.\n<\/p>\n

\n He was a sought after national and international boxing coach, she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “He will never be able to coach again.\n<\/p>\n

\n “The biggest outcome for him is he will never be able to go back to the sport he has loved and dedicated his life to.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It was his life.\n<\/p>\n

\n “He’s lost his entire career and that is the biggest punishment,” Ms Edwards said.\n<\/p>\n

\n Oliver Dunkin for the Crown said: “This was behaviour on the part of this defendant which has no place in 2019 when it occurred.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The award winning coach worked as a talent scout for England Boxing.\n<\/p>\n

\n He oversaw the development of more than 100 national champions.\n<\/p>\n

\n As a former boxer, he fought for the British title and narrowly missed being selected for the Seoul Olympics as light-welterweight.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Dunkin described the behaviour of the boxing coach as “more akin to the kind of sexist, misogynistic behaviour you used to see in the media of the 1970s.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Driscoll was jailed for three years and another four months to be served concurrently.\n<\/p>\n

\n He could spend up to half of his sentence in prison before being eligible for parole and will remain on the sex offender register indefinitely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England boxing head coach Michael Driscoll tore at a woman’s clothes after stripping to his socks and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-315762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}