Blow to Harry Maguire as battle to clear Man Utd star’s name over ‘holiday brawl’ to drag on…after lawyers go on strike

HARRY MAGUIRE’S fight to clear his name more than three years after an alleged holiday assault has been delayed again – as Greek lawyers go on strike.

The Manchester United star, 30, was arrested on an August 2020 family holiday and convicted of assault and attempted bribery in Mykonos after a late-night bar brawl.

The star centre-back has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing and immediately appealed in 2020 – nullifying the convictions and sparking a new trial.

But repeated delays to his appeal have caused the convoluted case to drag on for more than three years.

And now thanks to strikes by Greek lawyers, hopes of putting the infamous incident behind him have been dashed once again.

The footballer will not see the inside of a Greek court again until March 12, 2025 – marking four and a half years since the night of the alleged assault.

A lawyer at the appeals court in Syros said the date of the new trial, 1665 days after the night of the bar clash, was announced much sooner than expected.

“A lot of us want to be done with this case,” one insider at the court revealed.

“But there is nothing we can do because of this union action. Lawyers can’t be seen to be strike-breakers.”  

The hearing, they told The Sun, had been listed as Number 19 on the docket. “It was the last case due to be heard”, they added.

Harry was initially found guilty of assaulting police, resisting arrest and attempted bribery following the clash outside Mykonos bar Bonbonniere.

He was handed a suspended jail sentence of 21 months and 10 days but saw the conviction quashed after he was granted an appeal.

It nullified the original verdict and left a retrial to be decided in a more senior court – which still has yet to happen.

I thought we were getting kidnapped. We got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air, they just started hitting us.

Harry Maguire

The retrial was first postponed due to the Covid pandemic.

It was later scheduled for June last year, but Maguire’s legal team requested it be pushed back.

If he is now found guilty in March 2025, he will not be able to receive a more severe punishment than his original sentence.

Maguire’s brother, Joe, and friend, Christopher Sharman, were also handed suspended sentences of 13 months.

Soon after his arrest, Maguire gave a frank interview where he said he was “scared for his life” as Greek cops handcuffed him and bashed his legs with a baton.

He infamously told the BBC: “I did nothing wrong”, and said police disguised in plain clothes told him “your career is over, no more football, you won’t play again”.

“I thought we were getting kidnapped. We got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air, they just started hitting us”, Maguire, then 27, said.

He went on: “They were hitting my leg saying my career is over, ‘No more football. You won’t play again’.

“And at this point I thought there is no chance these are police or I don’t know who they are so I tried to run away, I was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life. All the way through it.”

Maguire claims the fight erupted after “an Albanian thug” injected his younger sister, Daisy, with an unknown substance outside a Mykonos bar.

The then Manchester United captain said he and his brother, Joe, who was also detained, were forced to intervene when they saw Daisy faint.

Moments earlier, he said, she had been stabbed by “this gangster type.”

“It’s been very tough on Daisy,” he told the BBC during his 2020 interview.  

A friend of their family also told a Greek court in 2020 that they saw Daisy fitting after she was injected with a “rape drug”.

A scuffle later allegedly broke out between cops and the trio, where one officer was punched and another needed first aid – Maguire has denied ever attacking the police.

They were hitting my leg saying my career is over, ‘No more football. You won’t play again.’

Harry Maguire

Fern Hawkins, who was in Mykonos with the centre-back at the time of the brawl, launched into a passionate defence of her boyfriend at the time and accused Greek cops of “lying”.

One officer claimed during the 2020 case that Maguire had boasted “Don’t you know who I am” when he was arrested, which Fern slammed as an attempt to “ruin Harry’s reputation”.

Pals say the episode has taken “a huge emotional toll” on Maguire.

In May last year a judge postponed proceedings after the footballer’s top-league lawyer, Alexis Anagnostakis, told the court he was unable to attend because his presence was needed at a higher court in Athens – permissible under Greek law.

The footballer has said he is willing to give evidence by video link when the case is eventually seen in court, but does not want to return to Syros in person.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk