http://www.smh.com.au/news/lhqnews/...-birds-sentence/2009/06/28/1246127430150.html
Mother recounts pain at Bird's sentence
Adrian Proszenko | June 29, 2009
THE mother of rugby league star Greg Bird has spoken about the pain of witnessing her son sentenced to jail, saying she is struggling with the verdict even more than the former Cronulla playmaker.
The former Australian international was sentenced to jail for a minimum of eight months in a Sydney court last week for attacking girlfriend Katie Milligan with a glass, although bail was later granted pending an appeal.
He remains in Australia ahead of a separate court hearing relating to a nightclub incident in 2008.
"The thing that hurt me the most was seeing Greg being taken into custody," Iris Bird told the Herald. "I was sitting in a row behind him and he looked at me as if to say 'Mum, can't you do something?'. It was like he was a little boy again, pleading with me
It's not the outcome we expected.
"I'm not going good. I feel really depressed and cry all the time. It's affected all of us in some way or another.
"He's taking it OK. We had a funeral [on Friday] of a close friend and that knocked him around as well. He's going OK considering everything. A lot better than I am, anyway."
She said that despite the most recent setback, Milligan and her son remained in a committed relationship.
"The hardest thing for me to understand is that Katie has never blamed him for it," Iris Bird said.
"Her parents
if my daughter was living abroad and with someone who did that to my daughter, I'd never forgive him. But her parents are really good with it. [It suggests]
there's even more to it than meets the eye."
Iris Bird burst into tears when asked about the prospect of seeing her son behind bars.
"It's something that I just don't want to think about," she said. "Hopefully, with the appeal, it won't come to that."
Brent Watson, the life-long friend Greg Bird attempted to blame for Milligan's eye injury, expressed sympathy for the former Sharks international in a text message he sent to the Herald. "That's a positive thing," Iris Bird said.
"They were pretty good mates and that was the worst thing that happened, to blame him for it.
"It came out in court that Katie said it and Greg carried the lie along."
The Sharks dumped Bird after the incident with his girlfriend and he subsequently took up an offer with Super League club Catalans.
They named Bird as their captain soon after his arrival but the latest developments cloud his playing career.
Iris Bird held out hope that her son would be able to play football again.
"He's still hopeful. It depends on the appeal [and] how that goes," she said.
