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Hackney tough: Leona Lewis can handle a fight

Nov 12, 2009, 12:03 GMT

The 24-year-old \'Happy\' singer - who shot to fame after winning UK TV talent show \'The X Factor\' in 2006 - insists she has moved on from her recent assault by a fan because she saw worse things happen in the east London area where she grew up. EPA/SOEREN STACHE

Leona Lewis can "look after herself" in a fight.

The 24-year-old 'Happy' singer - who shot to fame after winning UK TV talent show 'The X Factor' in 2006 - insists she has moved on from her recent assault by a fan because she saw worse things happen in the east London area where she grew up.

She said: "I'm from Hackney, so I'm hard. I'm not going to let something like that bother me. When you grow up where I did you learn to move on. There was always some kind of craziness going on in my neighbourhood.

"The boys were always fighting each other and there was loads of street crime. I know how to look after myself. The part of London where I grew up has the highest crime rates in the country."

The 'Bleeding Love' singer also said her long-term boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa was particularly angry about the attack because he hadn't been there to protect her.

She added to Britain's The Sun newspaper: "It brought out his protective side. It's horrible, no matter who you are, to be physically attacked by someone, but I'm not letting it worry me."

Following the incident, which took place at a book signing in London last month, Peter Kowalczyk, 29, from Waterloo, south London, was charged with common assault but later deemed unfit to face magistrates and has since been sectioned.