Amy Winehouse’s money was to be used in her husband’s blackmail plot?
It has been alleged in court the troubled singer knew her husband Blake
Fielder-Civil offered to pay £200,000 to a pub landlord assaulted in 2006.
Blake and friend Michael Brown, 39, are accused of attacking landlord James
King, 36, outside East London’s Macbeth pub, leaving him with serious
injuries including a fractured cheekbone.
The defendants later hatched a plot to pay King the huge sum to withdraw his
statement, not appear in court and to leave the country.
Two men Anthony Kelly and James Kennedy contacted a British newspaper and
tried to sell CCTV footage of the attack in October 2007, but were told by
journalist Stephen Moyes the footage was worthless, as it would be released
at the end of the trial.
Prosecutor Sean Larkin told the court :“Kelly said
there was a bigger story – a deal to ensure King would not turn up. Moyes
asked them to record their meeting with King on the one hand and
Fielder-Civil and Brown on the other.”
Moyes told the court: “[Kelly] said that the victim of the assault, James
King, was to be taken out of the country and paid some money so that it [the
trial] would not happen. He was to be paid £200,000.”
Moyes then revealed that when he asked Kelly if Amy knew about the deal, he
was told: “Who do you think is paying for it?”
Blake and Brown have both pleaded guilty to GBH and perverting the course of
justice. Kelly and Kennedy have also pleaded guilty to perverting the course
of justice.
King denies conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, while Amy faces no
charges at all.
Sentencing will take place at a later date.
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