The Grammy-winning, 25-year-old tabloid star reportedly “gasped” as she emerged from a vehicle outside the courtroom to find more than 60 photogs scrambling about outside the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, according to the London Times.
Winehouse is charged with allegedly clocking professional dancer Sherene Flash at the End of Summer Ball in London. Flash claims she approached Winehouse for a photograph and was rewarded with a punch to the head by the beehive-coifed singer.
Winehouse pleaded not guilty to the charge at an arrangement earlier this year.
Prosecutor Lyall Thompson said Winehouse appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or “some other substance” when the alleged incident took place, adding that Winehouse had originally agreed to Flash taking a picture, but may have become angry when someone else tried to partake in the Kodak moment.
“Miss Winehouse may have felt she had generously agreed to be photographed on her own and not with a drunken stranger,” Thompson said, and that it was no excuse for striking Flash.
“This was a deliberate assault by Miss Winehouse,” Thompson said. “There was nothing accidental about Miss Winehouse’s actions.”
It was the punch heard all the way to California as the assault charge resulted in the U.S. denying Winehouse a work visa to appear at April’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.
It was also the latest court proceeding for Winehouse, who was divorced two weeks ago by estranged hubby Blake Fielder-Civil, who spent more than a year in jail resulting from charges he and others had tried to “pervert the course of justice” by bribing a pub landlord to deny being assaulted.
Unlike today’s court appearance, neither Winehouse nor Fielding-Civic were present at the divorce hearing.
Meanwhile, Winehouse’s mother talked to the press last week, saying her daughter is doing better.
“A year ago, everyone was saying: ‘Will she get through this, will she even survive?’” Janis Winehouse told Closer magazine. “And look at her now. We’ve got the old Amy back. I always knew she’d come through it. And I know she doesn’t want to go back to the drugs.”
According to London’s Daily Mirror, the trial is expected to last two days.
Click here for the entire London Times article.
Click here for the entire Daily Mirror article.