Bloodied and shackled: Controversial cricket tycoon Allen Stanford beaten up by jail inmates

Bloodied and bruised, this is the shocking picture of cricket tycoon Allen Stanford after a beating by jail inmates.

His neck in a brace, his eye bleeding and half-closed and his head bandaged.

The final humiliation for Stanford, 60, awaiting trial accused of masterminding a $7billion fraud, with his feet and hands shackled as he was taken to hospital.

Once he posed with a perspex case containing $20million at Lord's cricket ground. after being hailed as the saviour of English cricket.

But that counted for nothing at the private prison in Conroe near Houston, Texas, and the inmates sharing his cell.

'I was on the telephone and some of the other people in the cell didn't like it,' he told a friend who visited him, according to the Sunday Times.

'They said something to me and then two of them jumped me and kept punching me and kicking me in the head.

'I lost consciousness, but at one time I came round and grabbed one of them by the leg. That just set them off a again'.

The guards burst into the cell and shackled Stanford before taking him to a hospital where he underwent an operation while still chained up.

 

Awaiting trial: Stanford in his prison uniform and shackles

Stanford suffered fractures to his eye socket, cheek bones and severe bruising to his body.

He has lost all feeling in the right side of his face. No one has been punished for the attack and he spent three weeks in solitary confinement. before being moved to another prison.

The assault happened in October last year in a cell holding 14 other men. It was designed to hold eight inmates and at the time had no electricity, air conditioning and was in virtual darkness.

The friend claimed the inmates were 'on edge' with each other because of the cramped conditions.

Stanford, who faces 21 charges at his trial which begins in January, had made three requests to be moved to another prison.

His downfall began after he signed a deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board in June 2008 for five Twenty20 international matches between England and a West Indies all-star XI with a prize of $20 million.

He was caught flirting with the wives and girlfriends of England's cricketers and was seen to grab Emma Prior, wife of wicket-keeper Matt and pull her onto his lap before putting an arm round Alistair Cook's girlfriend.