Ex-boxing champ freed from prison

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Former boxing champion Naseem Hamed has left prison after serving 16 weeks of a 15-month term for dangerous driving.

The 32-year-old was jailed in May after his sports car was involved in a 90mph crash in Sheffield which left another driver, Anthony Burgin, badly injured.

As he left Moorland Prison, Doncaster, on Friday in a Rolls-Royce, Hamed said: "My heart goes out to Mr Burgin."

Hamed, of Dore in Sheffield, will wear an electronic tag under the Home Office's Home Detention Curfew scheme.

Last week Mr Burgin, who suffered fractures to every major bone in his body in the crash, said he was shocked that Hamed was being released early.

As he left prison, the former world champion was asked by reporters if he was sorry for what he had done.

Missed birth

He replied: "All I can say basically is my heart goes out to the victim, Mr Burgin, and his family.

"I've just served nearly a four-month sentence in jail and not seeing my newborn baby, the birth of my newborn baby, what can I say, you know, it's been hard, but thank God nobody's died."

In May, Sheffield Crown Court heard the former world featherweight champion took a "stupid risk" while showing off his powerful Mercedes McLaren sports car to a businessman in May 2005.

He was doing at least 90mph on the wrong side of the carriageway as he approached a blind dip on Ringinglow Road, on the edge of the Peak District.

His car, with the registration plate NAS 1, was in a head-on collision with a Volkswagen Golf, driven by Mr Burgin, whose wife Claire was also injured in the crash.

Last Friday, Mr Burgin said in a statement: "What happened to my wife and I was deeply distressing and nearly destroyed our lives.

"I am shocked that after such a serious accident Mr Hamed has been released after less than four months."