Given the story that currently dominates the national news agenda, it's almost impossible to consider a boys' institution that proved the salvation of a troubled young Catholic. But this wasn't Ireland; this was New York, mid 1970s, and by the time the 11-year-old Mike Tyson was sent to the Tryon School for Boys, he had already committed numerous burglaries and robberies. His father had abandoned the family when he was two; his long suffering mother died when he was 16. He later recalled: "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: she only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. It's crushing emotionally and personally."

Those Brooklyn streets were so unimaginably bleak and without hope that a police officer broke down in tears when asked to recall the conditions that shaped the boyhood of one of America's most iconic boxers.

As the youngest member of a delinquent gang, Tyson's days were spent holding the gun during muggings, his nights spent sleeping rough in derelict buildings. Violent and virtually uncontrollable ? it reportedly took several adult men to restrain him during attempts to escape ? the boys' institution was to subsequently deliver Tyson into the care of legendary boxing coach, and, crucially, enduring father figure, Cus D'Amato. It was like the proverbial fairy story – setting aside the fact that this is about one of the most violent of sports – of the underprivileged young man rescued from a life of crime, and, most likely, early death. D'Amato's fortuitous assessment on seeing the 13-year-old spar in a police gym was: "That's the heavyweight champion of the world. If he wants it, it's his." And seven years on, 'Kid Dynamite' claimed it, becoming the youngest ever heavyweight champion in boxing history.

One of America's leading writers, Joyce Carol Oates, was in the Las Vegas Hilton Convention Centre on that night in November 1986 when Tyson took just over two minutes to annihilate reigning champion, 33-year-old Trevor Berbick. "The quality of Tyson's fighting – one might say Tyson's being – is profound," Oates recorded. "The impact of his body blows is felt in the farthest corners of the arena; the intensity of his fighting is without parallel." Tyson likened himself to that of a gladiator of the ancient world. "I feel like a warrior" he once said, and lived that in the ring, adopting the gladiatorial Roman motto of munera sine missione (no mercy shown). Opponents were made to feel his terrifying psychological, never mind physical, dominance – one infamous remark made pre-bout was his boast "I'll make you my girlfriend." Unfortunately for the man with the potential to become the greatest champion ever, his fearsome behaviour wasn't confined to the boxing ring.

Mike Tyson's name is inextricably linked with a violent crime which hadn't been specifically categorised in the nation's consciousness until the summer of l991 : date rape. Beauty queen Desirée Washington (18) accused the boxer of raping her after she agreed to accompany him to his Indianapolis hotel room. His claim that their encounter was consensual was thrown out in court. An unrepentant Tyson continues to deny the charge to this day. He served three years of a six year sentence, converting to Islam in jail.

Two years after his release, Tyson's name again became embroiled in controversy. In his second fight in June 1997 against then heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, he bit off a chunk of his opponent's ear. His boxing licence was revoked for a year. The man who strove to channel his intimidating capacity for unlimited violence into a lucrative career fell foul of addiction, corrupt management, and, probably, his own paranoia. His marriage to actress Robin Givens in 1988 had barely lasted a year.

Former manager Don King, who once described Tyson as "one of the most terrific athletes I've ever met" was sued by the boxer for fraud in 2004. Tyson retired the following year, saying that his whole life had been a waste, that people had put him on a high that he wanted to tear down. Others disagreed, wanting to explore the psyche of one of boxing's most complex pugilists and now Tyson is the subject of an eponymous, brutally frank documentary. "I don't like that person I see," is his verdict of the film. "I'm afraid of that guy." There are also talks with Hollywood, and Jamie Foxx tipped to play him, but the father of six's current role, as he told Rolling Stone last month, is as 'babysitter', at his home in Las Vegas, chiefly because: "I don't want to lose my girlfriend; I don't want to be estranged from my children." But that new found security was shattered last week with the accidental death of his four-year-old daughter Exodus. Her neck had become entangled in a cable hanging from a treadmill in the home gym. Tyson was not there when the tragedy occurred. How he deals with it will have a lot to do with the psychological rather than the physical strength he has cultivated over the years. And perhaps he can draw on the wise words of Cus D'Amato, his erstwhile father who died in 1985, but who Tyson still quotes.

"Cus was my backbone. We'd talk about things that would later come back to me. Like the hero and the coward: that the hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters."

Curriculum Vitae

Born: Michael Gerard Tyson, Brooklyn, New York City, 30th June 1966; father Jimmy, mother Lorna, brother Rodney, and sister Denise. Moved to Brownsville aged 10

Career: Professional debut 1985, New York winning in 1st round KO; world heavyweight title, 1986; lost title 1990; failed to regain title v Lennox Lewis, 2002; retired 2005

Personal life: Married Robin Givens 1988, divorced 1989 (no children); married Monica Turner 1997, divorced 2003 (two children, Rayna and Amir); other children: D'Amato Kilrain (1990), Mikey Lorna (1990), Miguel Leon (2002) and Exodus (2005)

In the news: Because of the death of his four-year-old daughter Exodus in a tragic accident