This week a top Mike Tyson-funded psychiatrist declared that the prize-biting fighter was simply like the rest of us. He needed to be touched and loved and understood argued Dr Norton Roitman, who then concluded that the convicted rapist was "a victim of society."

Tyson was in front of a jury which was deciding whether he was of the "right state of mind" to be let back into the ring, having been banned for taking a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear during a world title fight in Las Vegas last year.

"Tell 'em I'm not f***ed up, I'm cool, I'm cool," Tyson told Norton, who had testified earlier that his client had experienced "growth" since biting Holyfield.

The vice chairman of the committee, a crusty old veteran called Jim Nave, asked Roitman just how long he had spent with Tyson to have come to such a conclusion. "Two hours," answered Roitman. No surprise then that they now want the "growing" Tyson examined by an independent psychologist!