Amy 'paid for Blake victim bribe'

Amy Winehouse withdrew thousands to pay off a man her husband beat up, a court heard.

Pub landlord James King is said to have accepted a £200,000 bribe to throw a court case after being attacked by Blake Fielder-Civil and Michael Brown.

Despite suffering a fractured cheekbone in the beating outside the Macbeth in Hoxton, east London, James King was ready to be bought off, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

With the help of two middle men - Anthony Kelly, 25, of Chalk Farm, north London, and James Kennedy, 19, of Hatfield, Hertfordshire - King, 36, of Risley, Derbyshire, struck a deal where he would "effectively throw the (court) case and not turn up", said prosecutor Sean Larkin.

The court heard that the plot was exposed by the Daily Mirror after Kelly and King went to them to try to sell pictures of the assault and the newspaper contacted police.

Mirror reporter Stephen Moyes said Kelly told him James King "was to be taken out of the country and paid some money so that it would not happen. He was to be paid £200,000".

When Mr Moyes asked if Amy Winehouse knew about it, he was told: "Who do you think is paying for it?"

Prosecutor Sean Larkin said: "On November 7 Amy Winehouse's manager asked her bank for £8,000 which was withdrawn on November 8.

"The manager asked for more cash and Winehouse asked for £5,000 which she collected from the office in person.

"That may well accord with the £5,000 he (Kelly) wanted up front which he later told Stephen Moyes he had received."

There is no suggestion Winehouse was involved in the alleged plot.

Fielder-Civil, 26, of Camden, north London, has already pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and also to perverting the course of justice. Brown, of Carshalton, Surrey, has also admitted the same offences.

Kelly, 25, of Chalk Farm, north London, and Kennedy, 19, of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, have both also pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice around November 2007. All are to be sentenced at a later date.

King denies conspiracy to pervert the course of justice with Brown, Fielder-Civil, Kelly and Kennedy.

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