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Day in jail for Tyson

19/11/2007

Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has been sentenced to 24 hours in jail after pleading guilty to drug charges in the United States.

An Arizona court also ordered him to 360 hours community service and set a three-year probationary term.

Two months ago Tyson pleaded guilty to one charge of cocaine possession and a separate count of driving under the influence of drugs.

The 41-year-old, who in the 1980s became the youngest-ever heavyweight champion at the age of 20, was stopped by police after leaving a strip club in Scottsdale last December.

They observed him wiping a white powder off the dashboard of his black BMW, while his speech appeared slurred.

Two bags of cocaine were subsequently found in his pockets and his car.

Tyson could have found himself with a four-year-plus prison term, but the sentencing judge said she was adopting a lenient stance after he enrolled in a rehabilitation centre.

"I would like to apologise for my actions," the ex-boxer said during court proceedings.