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Gazza arrested for second time in two days
FORMER England football star Paul Gascoigne has been arrested for the second time in two days – after spending Sunday night in a North Yorkshire jail cell.
The ex-Newcastle United and Spurs midfielder was taken into custody along with another man by police called to the Blackwell Grange Hotel in Darlington on Monday night.
The 42-year-old - who has faced a long battle with alcoholism and depression - was later released without charge after being questioned on suspicion of a public order offence.
The men had been arrested the previous night on suspicion of being drunk in charge of a vehicle in North Yorkshire.
They were released on bail on Monday evening over the incident at a takeaway in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, but were soon back in custody after staff at the hotel called the police.
Gascoigne was freed without further action, but the second man, aged 40, was given a fixed penalty notice.
A Durham Police spokesman said: "At 8.10pm we received a call from the Blackwell Grange Hotel where staff reported an ongoing incident involving Paul Gascoigne and his friend, Michael Harvey.
"Both were arrested and taken to Darlington police station.
"Both were subsequently released. No further action was taken against Mr Gascoigne and the other man accepted a fixed penalty notice for a public order offence."
Gazza, who was sectioned three times under the Mental Health Act in 2008, has described how, when he hit rock bottom, he was taking cocaine and drinking a litre of gin a day, which left him delusional and afraid to leave his room.
The former England hero, who played at Newcastle, Spurs, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough and in China, went public about his continuing battle with addiction in March last year.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire he had been clean of drink and drugs for four months, working the 12 Steps Programme and attending Alcoholics Anonymous.
But in December last year, he was handed a fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly after being arrested in Newcastle.
Witnesses said Gazza was driven from the North Yorkshire police station to the hotel in a marked police van with a motorcycle escort.
He and the other man then went to the hotel bar and continued drinking, before confronting press photographer Paul Kingston, and trying to drag him into the hotel.
Staff at the exclusive Blackwell Grange Hotel, a 17th century former private mansion in the County Durham countryside, refused to comment.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
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Sunny spells
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