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Tyson denies raping beauty queen

May 30, 2003 11:27 IST
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Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson insists he never sexually assaulted the woman he was jailed for raping in 1991, but talking about her makes him so angry he wants to 'rape' her now.

In a Fox News interview to be broadcast on Thursday, Tyson, 36, calls former beauty queen Desiree Washington "a lying, monstrous young lady" and says, "I just hate her guts."

"She put me in that state where now I really do want to rape her," Tyson said, according to excerpts provided by Fox News of Greta Van Susteren's interview for The Pulse programme to be broadcast at 9 pm (1300 GMT).

Washington turned down requests to be interviewed and declined to respond to Tyson's comments, Fox News said.

Washington, who was 18-years old and a Miss Black America contestant at the time of the assault, accused the boxer of raping her in an Indianapolis, Indiana, hotel room.

Tyson was convicted of rape in a 1992 trial and sentenced to six years in prison. He served three years before his release on parole, which he completed in June 1999.

Asked whether he raped Washington, the former world heavyweight champion said. "No I didn't rape that slimy (expletive) ... anybody else having fun like that it's just young boys having fun but it's me, I'm a big black rapist ... that's the stigma I'm left with."

Tyson alleged Washington accused him of rape because she was 'money hungry' and 'really a bad person'.

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Source: REUTERS
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