Bruno 'taken to mental hospital'

Former heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno was tonight receiving treatment at a mental hospital after being taken from his home by medics.

A British police source said officers had assisted in removing the father-of-three from his home near Brentwood, Essex, under the terms of mental health legislation.

He was transferred into the care of a local mental health NHS trust.

Essex police would only say: “We have been assisting ambulance crews to remove a patient from an address near Brentwood.”

The source added: “The patient is Frank Bruno. It is my understanding that he has been sectioned.”

He said Bruno was believed to have been taken to a London hospital.

Eyewitnesses said Bruno was driven away from his home shortly before 7pm tonight.

It is believed that police and medics had been at the address for some hours.

Bruno, 41, has gone through a painful and costly divorce from wife Laura.

In a radio interview in early August, he launched an attack on the “mugs” and “creeps” he believed were trying to portray him in the same light as Mike Tyson.

He said then: “I’ve had a lot of people in my house, a lot of mugs and a lot of creeps, but I’ve had a lot of good people and I’ll stick with the good people I know.

“It’s jealousy and power and money. They’re trying to turn me into the English Mike Tyson, but I’m not the English Mike Tyson, I’m the English Frank Bruno I always was.”

He added: “I’m a prisoner in my own home. Just let me chill in my own home.”

Bruno, who lifted the WBC crown when he outpointed Oliver McCall at Wembley Stadium in September 1995, has spoken recently of making a boxing comeback despite the eye injury which appeared to have ended his career.