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Mike Tyson Photographed in St. Tropez Last Week; Accuser Florence Botoli

Woman Says Mike Tyson, 'Struck, Beat, Threw Her to Floor'

August 17, 2005

Original Article (English)

PORTO CERVO: Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been sued by 33-year-old Florence Botoli of Cameroon. Ms. Botoli, a trader resident of Nice, filed a report with Carabinieri [police] at Porto Cervo, alleging that she was beaten on the evening of August 6 and had to be treated at the accident and emergency room of Olbia Hospital. Mr. Tyson is said to have struck out at Ms. Botoli when she refused his advances.

Tyson in St. Tropez Last Week

The complaint, reported today in the Unione Sarda newspaper, claims that the woman was spotted by Tyson at a club. The boxer and a bodyguard pressed her to get into a car and then board a yacht anchored in the harbor.

Ms. Botoli says that alcohol was consumed and stripteases were performed by other women on the yacht. But when the former boxing champion asked her to spend the night with him, she refused. That was when her nightmare began, as Mr. Tyson vented his fury on her.

Ms. Botoli says that the boxer became aggressive and violent. In her complaint, she describes being struck several times, beaten and thrown to the floor. It was only thanks to a bodyguard that she was later able to leave the yacht and return to shore in a small dinghy.

She claims she went first to the accident and emergency room and then to the Carabinieri station at Porto Cervo, where she made a formal complaint. If Ms. Botoli’s statement is corroborated, the boxer may face charges of malicious personal injury, violent behavior and unlawful restraint.