FRANK BRUNO bravely opened up on his trauma at a psychiatric hospital where he was treated “like a slave”.
Bruno, 63, remains one of Britain’s greatest boxers and was crowned heavyweight world champion at the fourth attempt in 1995.
He surrendered the WBC belt to Mike Tyson in Las Vegas in March 1996, in what proved to be his final fight in the ring.
Arguably the toughest fight of his life, though, came seven years later.
In September 2003, Bruno was taken from his home under the Mental Health Act to Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford, Essex.
His daughter Nicola, just 20 at the time, had been the one to sign off the paperwork amid fears for her father, who was displaying erratic behaviour after the breakdown of his marriage, children moving out and trainer George Francis taking his own life.
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Clearly, it was not an easy decision for the family – but one they felt was necessary to protect Bruno.
But what followed for Bruno was a living nightmare.
He told Clubhouse Boxing: “It was the worst day of my life. It was a very heavy day for me.
“The ambulance turned up on the driveway with the police cars behind it. There were reporters climbing over the fences to get pictures. Helicopters overhead filming everything. It was very, very embarrassing.
“I never put my hands on anybody after boxing and I was being treated like I was this awful person.
“After it was all over, I had to go and see a shrink to sit down and talk to them to try and get over what had happened to me.
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“They would give me advice on how I could come to terms with it and it did help getting it off my plate and talking about it.
“But, when I even think about the way they sectioned me… they’re at my door at nighttime, they’ve got an ambulance and they’re telling me they want me to be sectioned.
“I’m not the sort of person to go and cause war with anybody but they’re set up like I am. I just didn’t want them coming through the house, which is what they tried to do.’
Once inside, Bruno says he was subjected to horrific treatment from the Goodmayes Hospital staff.
He spent three weeks sectioned, his room the size of a prison cell with a bed, no TV and a window that opened fractionally.
On some days he was permitted an iPod to help calm him down while every toilet trip had to be supervised.
Bruno, who was diagnosed with depression and later bipolar, explained the horrors of Goodmayes.
‘TREATED ME LIKE A SLAVE’
He said: “It’s a weird and a horrible place. I didn’t like it at all, man. They treated me very, very, very rough.
“They would go out of their way to try and wind you up or distress you. If you’re in a play group or walking around, they would trigger you.
“Also, if I was messing around with a football, they would come and take the football away just to make you even more miserable.
“It was mentally horrible. They treated me like a slave.
“They’re all corrupted and get kicks out of mistreating the patients. They should all be sacked.
“Thinking back to it now reminds me of how crazy it was. They should honestly all be sacked and I’m not just saying that. They are horrible people.
“It was like living in hell. There were some very sick people I came across.”
In response, Goodmayes Hospital told the Daily Mail: “We’re sorry to hear that this was Mr Bruno’s experience of our services.
I love my kids and I know that they love me too but I don’t think the sectioning was out of love… I just couldn’t understand why they had done this to me
Frank Bruno
“Since his last contact with services at Goodmayes, we have made several improvements to our inpatient environments, therapeutic work with our patients, and a significant investment in recruitment.”
Bruno was discharged with a concoction of powerful pills to take home where he was largely alone and feeling “like a zombie” – partly due to fortnightly injections.
He claims the doctors wanted him to stay on the “cocktail of drugs” for the “rest of my life”.
But the former boxer fought hard to come off the tablets – “fighting for my own mind back” – and after months was allowed to stop taking them.
However, his recovery was also physical and emotional.
Exercise was – and still remains – a key part of his lifestyle.
He works out twice a day with running, boxing or weights sessions in the gym.
And he has also been reconciled with his family, including Nicola, who he found out had been the one to condemn him to the psychiatric ward.
Bruno’s accusations against Goodmayes Hospital
- A “weird and horrible place”
- They “treated me very, very, very rough”
- Went “out of their way to try and wind you up or distress you”
- Would “trigger you” when playing or walking around
- Took football away “just to make you even more miserable”
- They “treated me like a slave”
- They are “all corrupted”
- They “get kicks out of mistreating the patients”
- They “should all be sacked”
- They are “horrible people”
- Goodmayes Hospital was “like living in hell”
- Discharged Bruno with “an injection and a bag full of drugs”
- They “wanted me to be on medication for the rest of my life”
Bruno – who was sectioned again in 2012 and during the Covid lockdown – added: “That was difficult. Our relationship is repaired now.
“I’ve got really good kids. I’ve given them a lot of hard, stressful times, doing crazy things and they’ve always tried their best to look out for me.
“I love them and I know that they love me too.
“But, I don’t think the sectioning was out of love. Because my daughter refused to come and see me, my son refused to come and see me.
“I just couldn’t understand why they had done this to me. But I love all of my kids and we’ve rebuilt since then.”
Bruno, though, has struggled to forgive the silence from the British Boxing Board of Control – and, like the late Ricky Hatton, has called on more to be done to support retired boxers once they are out of the ring.
True Brit added: “Think about all the millions these boxers have made them.
“The least they could do is put some aside for an old people’s home just for the boxers. The boards don’t give a s*** about the boxers.
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“They are the ones going out and doing the boxing and taking all the risk but they don’t give a monkey’s about what happens to them.
“Boxers have died. They (the Board) don’t deserve the money.”
