Frank Bruno, one of the country's most popular sportsmen, was in
hospital last night after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Panto favourite: Bruno has found life tough since leaving the ring
Ambulance crews called police officers to the home of the former
world heavyweight champion at Stondon Massey, near Brentwood, Essex,
after Bruno, 41, refused to go to hospital voluntarily.

Shortly before seven o'clock last night, the ambulance, a police car
containing three officers and a paramedics' vehicle set off in convoy
from his home to take Bruno to a psychiatric hospital just outside
Brentwood.

Police refused to confirm that the man they had helped to remove from
the house was Bruno, whose mental and physical health have been
causing concern since his divorce from his wife Laura two years ago.

"We were asked to assist an ambulance crew in removing a resident at
the house to hospital," was all a spokesman would say. However,
sources confirmed that the former boxer had been sectioned under the
Mental Health Act, meaning that he can be held in a secure unit for
up to 28 days while his condition is assessed.

Bruno admitted himself to the Priory clinic in Chelmsford earlier in
the summer. Last month, he denied newspaper reports that it was for
cocaine addiction but admitted being depressed about finances and the
break-up of his 11-year marriage to his childhood sweetheart. A
recent newspaper report suggested that Bruno, who retired from the
ring in 1996 but has embarked on a much-criticised attempt at a
comeback this year, was suffering from delusions and had taken to
sleeping in a tent in the grounds of his home.

Friends said that the boxer, who won the WBO title against Oliver
McCall at Wembley in 1995, had started to believe that he was the
jockey Frankie Dettori and had accused a tailor, who was fitting him
for a pantomime costume, of putting a straitjacket on him.

Last month, Bruno told BBC Radio Five Live: "Everybody has problems.
I'm OK. I've been through a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, but I'm
feeling stronger and stronger every day.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say I've been depressed. With the money I
lost, I've been a little bit depressed."

Bruno, who has a seven-year-old son and two daughters aged 21 and 16,
is said to owe £5 million as a result of the divorce settlement in
September 2001.

He has applied to the British Boxing Board of Control for the
reinstatement of his licence, hoping to share a £10 million purse in
a bout with Audley Harrison. But the board has ordered a report on
his fitness to box because of a torn retina he sustained in a fight
with Mike Tyson and because of concerns over his mental state.

By David Sapsted
(Filed: 23/09/2003)

Frank always performs with Sooty in various pantos across England and
all at Reaching Brand New Sooty Heights prays he gets the right
treatment for him to get better and that here will be back with Sooty
in time for Christmas.