People News

Amy Winehouse blackmail knowledge

Jun 11, 2008, 9:45 GMT

05/30/2008 - Amy Winehouse - Rock in Rio Lisboa 2008 - Day 1 - Parque da Bela Vista - Lisboa, Portugal © Rui M. Leal / PR Photos

Amy Winehouse's money was to be used in her husband's blackmail plot, it has been claimed.

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 yesterday (10.06.08): "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.