Man cleared of Winehouse husband bribe

11:51am Wednesday 25th June 2008

An ex-pub landlord has been cleared of taking a £200,000 bribe to save Amy Winehouse's husband and a Carshalton man from jail.

A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court took three hours to unanimously find James King, 36, not guilty of perverting the course of justice today.

Mr King had been left with serious injuries, including a broken cheekbone, after a brutal beating by Winehouse's husband Blake Fielder-Civil, 26 of Camden, and his friend Michael Brown, 25 of Carshalton.

They were charged with grievous bodily harm after the beating at the Macbeth pub in Hoxton, east London, in June 2006.

Mr King always claimed he had been bullied into withdrawing his statement against Fielder-Civil and Brown last November.

He told the jury he had been intimidated by Anthony Kelly, 25 of Chalk Farm, who told him he had "no option" but to withdraw his evidence so the pair would be found not guilty of assault. Kelly told him that he was part of a firm of gangsters who wanted the charges to go away.

The story was exposed when, unknown to Mr King, Kelly and James Kennedy, 19 of Hatfield, went to the Daily Mirror trying to sell CCTV images of the original attack.

But they upped the stakes when the newspaper showed little interest by boasting there was "a bigger story" and a bribe was in place to ensure that Fielder-Civil and Brown would not go to jail.

It is claimed that Kelly and Kennedy, who acted as middlemen helping to broker the deal, expected £20,000 each for their work.

Kelly and Kennedy have previously pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

All four men will be sentenced at a date to be fixed in July.

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