MOST Sundays, Peter Harrison takes to Twitter to share a prayer with his followers.

“It is just to try to remind people that they are down here for a reason and they are protected,” he explains when we meet over coffee. “You never know, someone may feel down and read something which makes them feel better.”

The 66-year-old, arguably the finest fight trainer this nation has produced, has had many days in recent times in which happiness has been hard to find. Keeping busy helps. He continues to work with a number of professional boxers, including Commonwealth Games gold medallist Charlie Flynn and former British title holder Willie Limond, hungry for more champions to add to his impressive resume.

He also spends three nights a week helping pugilists of all ages and aptitudes keep fit at his gym in the Dalmarnock area of Glasgow. Earlier this month, the city honoured him with a lifetime achievement award thanks to the work he does there.

He opened the Scott Harrison School of Boxing within the premises in late 2009, a facility set up to make the sport accessible to all. Sadly, the man it is named after, his son and former WBO world featherweight champion, remains unlikely to be back within its ropes for quite some time.

Scott is currently serving a four-year prison sentence in Madrid, sent to Spain last July following a prolonged wrangle over two convictions for assault handed down in Malaga in 2012. His family continue to argue that there were serious flaws within the case and remain disillusioned over the request for leave to appeal against his extradition being dismissed in court.

“There were three judges there with their wigs on and Scott didn’t even get the chance to say anything for himself,” reported Peter. “There should have been more done to keep him here.”

There are no signs of the case being revisited, though. Few signs of the family being supported in their desire to bring him back to Scotland to, at the very least, complete his incarceration in a place where his four children would be able to visit.

Whatever Scott’s past misdemeanours, the collateral damage brought by his exile – the toll taken on his mother, partner Stacey and his kids - has been hard to bear. His father has spent much of his life working with schools, youth groups, getting young men on the right track.

At a time when he is seeking help himself, he feels isolated, ignored and powerless. His faith in a country he once loved has gone and, as he reveals, there has been deep thought given to many of his other core beliefs.

“I get really annoyed with Scotland,” he said. “I don’t know if this is going too deep, but you get really annoyed with God as well.

“I have always tried to help people. You think you are living not a bad life. You do hope for something back, I suppose, at times when things are going against you and you are not being treated right.

“Boxing is a solitary sport and you don’t always have that many people to talk to. Sometimes, it makes you feel better when you talk to someone higher up. That is certainly the way I have always been.

“I would say this period probably has tested my faith. I am a practising Christian and I do have questions over why things are going against me.

“I just feel it is not right what has been happening to Scott and you sometimes wonder whether it is going to get any better.

“I used to give out lists of great Scottish inventors to my boxers to inspire them.

“I don’t feel proud to be Scottish right now. I feel it has let down me and my family.”

The Harrisons, of course, flew the Saltire with pride as they ruled the world together, boxer and trainer, father and son.

Relentless, hard-hitting and tactically astute, Scott cut a swathe through the nine-stone division. He won nine of his 11 world title fights, drawing another. He did lose his crown to Mexican Manuel Medina, but won it back from him next time out.

His last defence came against Nedal Hussein, a win by unanimous decision, in November 2005. From then on, matters private rather than professional have attracted most attention.

He was stripped of his title in 2006 after failing to appear for a weigh-in. There have been sentences served in Barlinnie Prison and in Malaga for assault and drink driving. By his own admission, there have been issues with alcohol.

When that extradition request from the Spanish authorities came last year, though, Harrison was weeks from a comeback. With his licence revoked at home, the Malta Boxing Commission had provided the necessary paperwork to allow him to fight in the United Kingdom.

Peter has remained fiercely loyal throughout the tumult of the past decade as, perhaps, a father should. He cannot help but reflect on how so many damaging events could have been avoided, though, and often finds himself returning to an evening in America in April 2000 when his son, still establishing his reputation, earned a unanimous 10-round decision over former two-weight world champion Tracy Patterson in one of boxing’s true cathedrals.

“Scott fought in Madison Square Garden and someone asked me afterwards why he didn’t stay in New York,” he said. “My response was that, looking back, it would probably have been a good idea.

“He was in Glasgow when he really shouldn’t have been. I didn’t think that at the time, but it is one thing I would change if we could go back in time. We have relations in America as well.

“I think the trouble all started from the fact that Scott never thought he was any different from anyone else.

“He could go into a pub in The Barras and someone would say: “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be in here.”

“He’d have people saying that he didn’t look as big and hard as they’d expected, guys saying they thought they could take him. It happened to me as a boxer as well.

“I read Sean Connery’s book a while back and he said he didn’t stay in this country because people do try to put you down here. I can see what he meant.”

It is tempting to see the gym, the fight game, as Peter’s refuge as he waits for some semblance of hope that his son can be brought home.

“I suppose the boxing has kept me focused,” he said. “When you go to a show, for example, everyone wants to know how Scott is doing. It is tough when you think of him locked up over there and you know he has been hard done-to.

“I am not just saying that because I am his dad. There were things wrong with that case. I think a lot of it was to do with him being high-profile, a boxer, and was about people trying to get money out of him as well.

“The good thing about him is that he is so mentally strong. He is training over there, speaks fluent Spanish and talks to his family every Sunday. We make sure all the kids are in the house for his calls.”

Despite everything, Peter also believes Scott, now 38, may fight again.

“My grandfather was a boxer, my dad boxed in the Royal Navy, I was a boxer. It is what our family does,” he said. “I really believe the story has yet to be finished.”

In dark times, we all need something to cling onto.