The great and mighty Lee Bowyer

According to Emma there was a pattern of self-destructive behaviour, and she forgave him many times until, one night, he said something she can never pardon. Though Emma has an olive complexion, her mother is, half-Asian. Whether or not Bowyer was aware of this, the matter was not mentioned until they had been dating for 10 months, by which time he wanted them to get engaged. One night, however, when they rowed because she turned up late for a dinner date, she says he raised the question of her ethnicity. 'I was in his bedroom getting ready and he started ranting then stormed off downstairs,' she recalls. 'When he came back a few minutes later he looked at me sort of strangely and said, 'Oh, my mum's just told me something about you. He didn't use the word Paki, or Indian. He said - and I'll never forget - "My mum says you've got something 'in' you." I said, "Yes, I'm Indian", and Lee replied, "Yeah, that's what my mum said", and he started pacing up and down the floor. He went downstairs again, and when he returned he said we couldn't have a baby because it might be a "throwback". I asked what he meant, and he said, "You know, we could have a brown baby. It could be the colour of your mum."'

Emma walked out, and never went back.

Her account would be sufficiently disturbing if it stood alone, but in September, 1996, a few months after they parted, he returned from his new home in Leeds for a night out with his boyhood pals, John Nwikpo and Ben Bonnici. After drinking to excess, the three teenagers bowled into McDonald's on the Isle of Dogs, where Bowyer demanded a cheeseburger. When the young counter assistant, Shamsul Mia, informed him that only the breakfast menu was available, he flew into a rage. A court heard later how he and his friends were caught on video, hurling chairs and creating mayhem. Bowyer, who admitted affray, was fined ?4,500: then half a week's wages. The prosecution did not suggest race was a factor. However, Mr Mia claims that a snarling, red-faced Bowyer refused to be served by 'a f**king Paki', and he told the Daily Mail: 'If Lee Bowyer is not a racist thug then I don't know who is.'

Posted By: Winged Eel Creosote on June 16th 2005 at 14:36:47

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