Chelsea and England legend Kerry Dixon reveals how prison turned his life around
KERRY DIXON is the man who had it all and lost the lot.
Thirty years ago the football world was at his feet, the golden boy of Chelsea and a member of England’s 1986 World Cup squad.
But away from the pitch his life spiralled out of control, a squalid story of gambling debts, drugs and, ultimately, prison.
Now Dixon is fighting back, determined to make up for his mistakes after hitting rock bottom while serving a nine-month sentence for ABH.
Yet the former King of Stamford Bridge is not asking for pity or sympathy, just a chance to make amends.
This week sees the release of his painfully honest autobiography, Up Front, with highlights featuring in The Sun tomorrow. And as we spoke at a pub near to his Bedfordshire home, Dixon’s remorse was all too apparent.
He readily acknowledges losing his house, dignity and freedom are all a direct consequence of his gambling addiction.
But it was the panic attacks suffered while sharing a tiny cell with an armed robber in Bedford Prison last year which finally convinced him to take back control of his life.
Dixon said: “You hear stories of people having it easy in prison, having a laugh. But it’s not easy. It’s lonely, it’s scary, it’s boring and it’s harrowing.
“I didn’t realise I was claustrophobic until they put me in the security van to take me from the court to prison.
“They call it the sweat box but it was more like a metal coffin.
“You can just about sit down but your knees touch the front wall, your shoulders touch the sides and the roof is about six inches above your head.
“There’s a tiny darkened window but as soon as they slammed the door I had a panic attack and was screaming ‘let me out, let me out’.
“The journey lasted 45 minutes and was the worst thing I’d ever experienced. It borders on inhumane, a heart attack waiting to happen.
“I had a few more panic attacks in prison as a result of that. It was sweltering hot in the cell and the window only opened a couple of inches.
“There were nights when I’d have my mouth pressed up against the window, desperately trying to suck in some air.
“It was an awfully lonely place. One inmate hanged himself while I was there.
“When something like that happened they put the entire prison in lock-down, but word quickly got round.”
Dixon’s unease was not helped by an intimidating cell-mate who would later be sentenced to 13 years for a string of armed post office raids.
I wasn’t scared, but I was apprehensive. You hear all sorts of stories.
He explained: “As soon as I got out of that prison van I was taken to my cell, where this very large and very muscular bloke made it clear that he didn’t want me in there with him.
“He was waiting to be sentenced and was obviously agitated about sharing a cell. And he wasn’t the sort of bloke to pick an argument with.
“I wasn’t scared, but I was apprehensive. You hear all sorts of stories.
“He used to lie in his bed watching Jeremy Kyle and Storage Hunters on TV. I’d lie on the top bunk, staring at pigeons and the same bit of concrete.
“Was I depressed? I don’t really know. It could be argued that I’ve been in a depression for 20 years since the slide started.”
Dixon, 55, served four-and-a-half months inside before his release last November, plenty of time to reflect on the reasons for his incarceration.
Back in the 80s, the blond hitman had been the idol of Stamford Bridge. His tally of 193 goals is still the third-highest in Chelsea history, behind Frank Lampard and Bobby Tambling.
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The bustling striker scored four times in eight games for England — and came on as a sub in the 1986 World Cup finals game against Poland.
But Dixon’s secret gambling addiction gradually took its toll and led to him being sold to Southampton in 1992 before subsequent moves to hometown club Luton, Millwall and Watford. A brief spell as player-manager with Doncaster Rovers ended in 1997.
He added: “I was still involved in non-League football when I started taking cocaine at the age of 39.
“I was running a pub to pay off my debts and was working so hard that there were a couple of times I simply flaked out. One of the regulars suggested if I had a sniff of cocaine I’d be able to stay up longer.
“I’d always been fiercely anti-drugs but I was so tired that I gave it a go and it eventually had the desired effect. Suddenly I could stay up until three or four in the morning.
“It wasn’t something that happened on a regular basis. Maybe on a Saturday night over an 18-month period before it sort of filtered away.”
I started taking cocaine to stay awake longer
He claimed: “They said they had a tip-off from a member of the public that I was dealing drugs.
“They turned up with 20 policemen, two or three sniffer dogs and a film crew from Channel Five.
“They turned the house upside down, were in and out my car, searched my mum and dad’s house and all they found was one wrap of cocaine which Kim admitted was for her personal use.
“But they took me away in handcuffs, put me in a cell overnight and charged me with intent to supply drugs. It was absolute crap, a pathetic joke. I made two court appearances before they dropped the charges.”
But it was the consequences of that well-publicised arrest which led to Dixon’s eventual incarceration.
He explained: “A week after the raid I was in the Nag’s Head in Dunstable when two pissed blokes started asking me ‘are you the drug dealer?’
“I just ignored them but one of these fellas wanted to take it a stage further and a couple of hours later he sat in my seat at the bar.
“I asked him to move, he just looked at me and said ‘f*** off, fatso’. I was aware he was holding a pint glass. I still had the scars from when someone stuck a glass in my face ten years earlier and I didn’t want the same thing happening again.
“So I whacked him in the face. And then I hit him a few more times to make sure he stayed down.
“Then me and Kim walked out of the pub and this builder and his mate chased after us with a glass in his hand. He’d lost a few teeth and there was a lot of blood but he wasn’t so badly injured he couldn’t chase me.”
The intervention of a doorman and some pub regulars prevented any further damage but Dixon was arrested and charged with actual bodily harm.
He added: “The judge refused to allow CCTV footage of the two blokes chasing me with a glass to be admitted into the trial.
“The jury decided I had broken the law and, in the cold light of day, I agree with their decision. Someone got injured and I regret it.
“I wish this chapter wasn’t in my book. I wish it was all just the fairytale of my football career, scoring goals for Chelsea and for England.
“But that’s not the way things happened and I want to be honest.
“The phone calls and the work have dried up since I came out of prison so now I’m working as a heating engineer’s mate, laying pipes and installing air conditioning.
“It barely pays the bills but I’m grateful for the work and I’m certainly not complaining. I’m just looking for a second chance.”
Former Chelsea and Scotland winger Pat Nevin says of his old team-mate: “Kerry was tall, blond, good-looking and an England striker. All the things that would make him easy to hate!
“But you couldn’t dislike the Golden Boy. As everyone now knows, there were problems which he kept well hidden during the early years of his Chelsea career.
“Whatever you do in life, if you can say that you are a Chelsea legend then that is something of which to be eternally proud.”
Dixon added: “Everyone has to live with the cards they’re dealt. Some people will say I had bad cards, others that I had a good hand but played them badly.
“I can’t worry about how people remember me. I just hope that anyone who meets me will think ‘he’s an all right bloke’. All I ask is that you don’t judge me until you’ve met me.”
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