Harry Maguire allegedly refused chances to pay a £43,500 bribe to Greek police to make his Mykonos assault case go away just days before being handed a 15-month suspended sentence.
The England and Manchester United defender was on Wednesday found guilty of non-serious assault, resisting arrest and attempted bribery six years after a brawl on a family holiday in August 2020.
The footballer, 33, is expected to launch an appeal to the Greek Supreme Court after one judge found him not guilty and two others handed down a guilty verdict.
He did not appear at the retrial on the island of Syros as he was instead preparing for his team’s match against Newcastle last night.
Maguire was initially found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and attempted bribery in 2020 and handed a 21-month suspended sentence, but the conviction was automatically quashed on appeal under Greek law.
The retrial was then postponed four times – first in May 2023 because Maguire’s defence counsel was unavailable, then in February 2024 due to the Greek lawyers’ strike, then on two more occasions in March and October last year.
The England international was repeatedly told paying a fee of £43,500 would settle the case, sources claim.
But Maguire was apparently insistent on clearing his name, resulting in Wednesday’s retrial which upheld the guilty verdict.
Harry Maguire pictured with his sister Daisy in Mykonos 2020 prior to being arrested. He allegedly refused chances to pay a £43,500 bribe to Greek police to make the case go away
The footballer pictured at the Bonbonniere bar on an Instagram story shared by his sister Daisy
The footballer yesterday branded the ruling ‘a shambles’ and vowed to take the case to Greece’s Supreme Court.
A source close to Maguire told The Sun: ‘He would rather be found guilty than pay a bribe.
‘No apology or payment will ever be made and Harry will clear his name. He won’t stop fighting until that happens and will go to the Supreme Court if he needs to.’
The out-of-court settlement had been offered by undercover police involved in the fight in 2020, the source added.
‘This has always been about paying money,’ it added. ‘He hasn’t paid a single penny and he never will. He stuck to his guns and his values and won’t budge.’
Another source claimed Greek police statements were ‘primary school standard’ leaving lawyers struggling to understand their accounts of what happened.
The Daily Mail has approached Greek Police for comment.
The long-running saga which saw Maguire spend two nights in custody began on a summer holiday a year after he joined Manchester United in a £80million move from Leicester City.
His lawyers claimed two Albanian men injected his sister Daisy with an unknown substance in a bar on a night out, causing her to faint.
Maguire told the BBC in 2020: ‘Two men approached my little sister. They asked her where she was from and she responded.
‘My fiancee Fern saw my little sister’s eyes going to the back of her head. She was fainting. She was in and out of consciousness.’
The England star’s defence team said that when the player and his group of family and friends called for transport to take her to hospital, they were instead driven to a police station where Maguire was assaulted by plain-clothed officers.
Maguire said at the time: ‘My initial thought was we were getting kidnapped. We got down on our knees. We put our hands in the air.
‘They just started hitting us. They were hitting my legs, saying my career was over. No more football. “You won’t play again”.
‘At this point, I thought there’s no chance. These are police, or I don’t know who they are.
‘So I tried to run away. I was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life all the way through it.’
The prosecution argued Maguire had pushed over a policeman trying to handcuff him, causing leg and back injuries, and had offered to bribe officers – claims Maguire branded ‘ridiculous’.
They also argued that another policeman was punched by one of the defendants.
Maguire pictured playing for Manchester United in a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United last night just hours after the verdict
Maguire said: ‘It was horrible. It’s not something I ever want to do again. It’s the first time I’ve ever been inside a prison, and I don’t wish it on anybody.
‘I don’t feel like I owe an apology to anybody. An apology is when you’ve done something wrong.
‘Do I regret being in the situation? Obviously, the situation has made it difficult, and I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, so I regret putting the fans and the club through this.
‘But I think it could have happened anywhere. I love Greece. I think footballers get a bit of stick for trying to stay away from everything in the public eye. It’s not how I want to live my life.
‘I have great faith in the Greek law. A retrial will give us more time to gather the evidence, allow witnesses into the court, and I’m really confident that the truth will be told and come out.’
Doubts have been raised over whether the trial would take place at all as the statute of limitations date in two years’ time fast approached.
Maguire was not required to attend the hearing in person as his lawyers attempted to clear his name.
He played the full 90 minutes in Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle on Wednesday which saw his side lose ground on league leaders Arsenal.
