A FRIEND of Bradford champion wrestler Jimmy 'Cry Baby' Breaks is shell-shocked at reports of the 80-year-old being arrested in Gran Canaria after an ex-partner's death.

Steven Tempest-Mitchell, son of another Bradford star of the ring, Dennis Mitchell, said he was stunned to hear about his old family friend, who was also landlord of The New Inn at Wyke in the mid-1970s.

Mr Tempest-Mitchell, 59 and living in Clayton Heights, said he was contacted by a national newspaper and another associate from the wrestling world on Saturday to be told that Jimmy Breaks was in police custody after his ex-partner Donna Cowley, 47, was found with serious injuries in her apartment in popular Ex-Pat and tourist spot Mogan. She later died in hospital.

One newspaper published a picture over the weekend of Mr Breaks, who held 32 wrestling titles, being led away in handcuffs by the Guardia Civil, the police force investigating.

According to reports, Mr Breaks, who married three times and retired to the Canary Islands more than 20 years to enjoy a life in the sun, is under arrest without bail but has not been charged. Charges in Spain are only laid shortly before trial.

Reports in the national press also claim Breaks was said to have been sat on the sofa watching TV when police stormed into his home. According to Spanish newspaper La Provincia, the former TV sports star resisted arrest.

Jimmy Breaks' wrestling career had spanned 28 years and he was the British Lightweight Champion from 1963 to 1967. As a boy, he learned wrestling at the Windmill Club, in Manchester Road, Bradford.

A spokesman for the Guardia Civil said: “Local police in Mogan responded initially after being alerted to a 999 call about an alleged assault which had occurred at a property in the municipality.

“The initial police response focused on assisting the victim and subsequently detaining the alleged aggressor who was immediately handed over to the Guardia Civil in Mogan.

“The victim, a foreign woman aged 47 who lives in the Canary Islands, was taken to Arguineguin Health Centre before being transferred to the Gran Canaria Insular Hospital in the capital Las Palmas where she died on Friday morning.

“Up until now, and pending the official result of the autopsy, it has not been possible to determine the exact causes of her death, and whether her death is linked to the possible assault.

“The arrested man, who is 80 and whose initials are J.B and also a foreign man living in the Canary Islands, is also being held on suspicion of undermining the authority of the law relating to an act of ‘active resistance’ at the Guardia Civil station in Puerto Rico.”

Mr Tempest-Mitchell said he had been due to visit Jimmy Breaks in Spain last year but plans were changed.

He said: "He's gone quiet on Facebook recently. He hasn't been responding which was unusual. We are all shell-shocked at the reports and are just waiting to see what happens next. He's been arrested but not charged yet. We feel sorry for the woman's family, I believe she was an ex-partner."

And he added: "Jimmy was very athletic, very competitive. He has a smile and a joke for everyone. He's a nice guy, the kind of guy you'd like to have a pint with."