Sir Geoffrey Boycott’s wife has called on domestic violence charities to stop ‘crucifying’ her husband over his conviction for assaulting his former lover.
Rachael Boycott, 67, claims the former England cricket captain Sir Geoffrey was wrongly convicted of beating up Margaret Moore in a French hotel room in 1996.
She says her husband fully deserves his knighthood, which he is due to receive at Buckingham Palace today, and brands Ms Moore a ‘bunny boiler’.
Sir Geoffrey, 79, was given the gong last year in former Prime Minister Theresa May’s resignation honours list, sparking outrage among domestic abuse charities.
Rachael Boycott (right) says her husband Geoffrey (left) is innocent and has called on domestic abuse campaigners to leave him alone
In Mrs Boycott’s 2,000-word letter of defence, she suggests her husband was deliberately framed by Ms Moore so she could sell her story. Boycott allegedly pinned her down and punched her more than 20 times.
‘Just stop for a minute and consider has there ever been a miscarriage of justice,’ Mrs Boycott wrote in the letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph.
‘Could you be wrongly crucifying a good man? Just consider – could he actually be telling the truth?
‘My belief after sitting through the court case and being at Geoffrey’s side throughout his ordeal, is that Ms Moore was a ‘bunny boiler’ who saw Geoffrey as a meal ticket when she was about to go bankrupt for £800,000.’
England cricket legend Sir Geoffrey Boycott (left) was convicted of beating his then-girlfriend Margaret Moore (right) during a furious argument at a hotel in the south of France in 1996
Ms Moore has always stood by her account and French magistrates delivered a guilty verdict to Sir Geoffrey in 1998 that was upheld on appeal.
She told the court Sir Geoffrey was ‘very strong’ and she ‘couldn’t stop him’ despite her ‘screaming and screaming’.
The former cricketer has always protested his innocence. He insists his ex-girlfriend bumped her head while drunkenly ‘hitting and kicking’ him.
Responding to the backlash over the historic assault charge when his honour was announced, Sir Geoffrey told Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4: ‘I don’t give a toss about her, love, it was 25 years ago.’
Mrs Boycott, who has been married to Sir Geoffrey for 17 years, sent the letter to leading critics of her husband’s knighthood, including the domestic violence charities Women’s Aid and Woman’s Trust, and the Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Dawn Butler.
Former Spice Girl Mel B was also included in the list of recipients, after previously describing Sir Geoffrey as a ‘disgrace to Yorkshire’.
In the letter, Mrs Boycott refers to newly-uncovered court documents that she claims undermines Ms Moore’s account.
‘I would like to share evidence with you that I believe casts serious doubt on Ms Moore’s story. By taking her side unconditionally, I believe you risk devaluing genuine domestic abuse,’ she writes.
Miss Moore (above after the attack) accused the cricketer of hitting her when she grabbed his expensive suit and tried to throw it out of a window, a claim Boycott himself has always denied
The documents reportedly include a record of a British judge accusing Ms Moore of a ‘deliberate lack of truthfulness’ during a bankruptcy hearing shortly after the assault.
Mrs Boycott said: ‘My belief after sitting through the court case and being at Geoffrey’s side throughout his ordeal, is that Ms Moore was a ‘bunny boiler’ who saw Geoffrey as a meal ticket when she was about to go bankrupt for £800,000.
‘I believe she decided to make the allegations and sell her story after he refused to marry her. She even told Max Clifford she wanted a million. That’s how deluded she was.’
The documents reportedly show Ms Moore’s IT business had debts of £1.3million.
It is also claimed a barrister for Ms Moore asked for £1million for her silence over the attack.
Another legal letter is said, according to The Telegraph, to show she made false accusations against her ex-husband to prevent him seeing their two children.
A consultant forensic psychiatrist quoted in the documents concluded Ms Moore was ‘probably a pathological liar’ and had ‘a personality disorder with hysterical and psychopathic features’.
Ms Moore did not respond to the Daily Telegraph’s requests for comment last night.