The Northern Irishman, who had reached the Last 16 of the UK Open in his PDC major debut at the start of the year, has been suspended from all professional darts, pending a DRA investigation. McKinstry, along with Wessel Nijman, was linked to suspicious betting patterns during the MODUS Icons of Darts online events during lockdown.

Unlike Nijman, McKinstry denied the accusation at first. After failing to co-operate with the investigation at first, the 34-year-old performed a U-turn.

Now, speaking exclusively with Darts World, he has revealed some of the context behind one of the biggest sportsmanship scandals to affect darts in the modern era.

“It’s definitely been the worst few months of my life. I’ve been in a really bad place since the coronavirus pandemic started and then lockdown.

"I lost my darts income, and then lost my engineering job, in the space of a few weeks.

“I was left completely desperate and without any money," revealed an emotional McKinstry.

“I’m not alone in this situation, I know that. I know that lockdown has hit so many families and so many people have lost their jobs.

“But for me I was going through personal torture. I’ve always been a hard worker and never been without a job."

McKinstry opted not to explain exactly how he profited from the match-fixing, or how it came to happen, but pinpointed the catalyst for the biggest mistake of his burgeoning career.

"On the day I lost my engineering job, I was totally devastated. That's the day I let myself down with the online darts.

“I’m not going to go into the details. I’m too ashamed of what I’ve done. I’ve let down my family, my management, the fans and the sport.

“It was a moment of weakness. I’ve got a partner and two young children. I had no money whatsoever and I was desperate. I’m only a human being, I made a mistake.

"I'm still in a really bad way. I've lost everything right now. I need to try and rebuild my life, for my children above all else," said McKinstry.

Having admitted the offence, McKinstry now throws himself on the mercy of the DRA. His only hope is that the punishment meted out will give him the opportunity to come back, even if the impact on his reputation is irredeemable.

"I will accept my punishment, I've done wrong," he said.

"It will never happen again. I've been punished already by my own shame, every single day.

“I want to save my career and fight back from this and prove to everyone in a positive way how you can respond to doing wrong in the right way.

"I've been given amazing support by Alan Warriner at the PDPA, and by the DRA.

"I hope everyone understands this was totally out of character and an act of real desperation," added McKinstry - a sentiment which MDA Promotions echoed when cutting ties with the former Lakeside quarter-finalist.

“That doesn’t make it right I know. But I hope I can be given a second chance to prove my integrity in the sport I love and rebuild my life.”