The wife of former cricketer Geoffrey Boycott sent letters asking campaigners to stop "crucifying" him over his conviction for beating his ex-lover.
Rachael Boycott, 67, branded his assault victim a “bunny boiler” and claimed he fully deserved his knighthood, awarded last year by former Prime Minister Theresa May in her resignation honours.
He was knighted at Buckingham Palace on Friday by Prince Charles, who also gave singer Elvis Costello his OBE medal and author Lee Child a CBE.
In 1996, Margaret Moore said she was repeatedly punched in the face by the former England captain, who was found guilty in a French court in 1998. But in the letter, Mrs Boycott claimed there was a miscarriage of justice over the incident.
The letter was sent to critics, including domestic abuse charities and MPs, who slammed the decision to knight someone convicted of domestic violence.
The Woman’s Trust charity revealed it had received the letter. It said: “To give anyone a knighthood when they have a conviction for domestic abuse sends the wrong signal to survivors.”
Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Dawn Butler were also sent the letter, as was Spice Girl Melanie Brown who branded Boycott a “disgrace to Yorkshire”.
Sir Geoffrey was fined £5,000 and given a three-month suspended prison sentence over the assault.
The cricketer, known to be a sporting hero of Mrs May, amassed 8,114 runs in 108 Test matches between 1964 and 1982, as well as scoring over 1,000 runs in 36 one-day international appearances.
He finished his career with a first-class average of 56.83 and was the first English player to average over 100 in a season on two occasions.
