Did Amy know of bar attack bribe?

By Ruth Doherty on Wednesday 11 June 2008

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Marie Claire celebrity photos: Amy Winehouse on her way home from Limehouse police station

Amy Winehouse was implicated by two ‘middle men’ in a plot to get her husband off assault charges, a court heard yesterday.

It was claimed the singer was to foot the £200,000 bill to pay pub landlord James King to drop GBH charges against Blake Fielder-Civil.

Anthony Kelly and James Kennedy were allegedly hired to broker the deal, but are thought to have believed they would make more money by selling the story the Daily Mirror because of its high profile.

Prosecutor Sean Larkin said that King was ready to agree to ‘throw the case’ and be bought off. He said: ‘Mr King expected to be paid something in the order of £200,000 and the middle men, Mr Kelly and Mr Kennedy obviously expected to get a cut of it. There was talk of £20,000 and the attackers Mr Brown and Mr Fielder-Civil expected to be found not guilty and that was their private deal.’

But realising the story was newsworthy, Kelly and Kennedy set up a meeting with the Mirror, instead, and, when journalist Stephen Moyes asked the pair during the meeting if Amy Winehouse knew anything about the bribe, they said, ‘Who do you think is paying for it?’

However no evidence has emerged to suggest that she was part of the alleged plot.

Fielder-Civil and Michael Brown have admitted assaulting James King at his pub, The Macbeth, in East London, and have pleaded guilty to charges of perverting the course of justice, along with Kelly and Kennedy. King denied charges of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.