Singer alleged to have punched dancer after performance at charity ball

Singer Amy Winehouse reacted with “deliberate and unjustifiable violence” when a dancer politely asked her for a photograph at a charity ball, a court heard today.

Prosecutor Lyall Thompson said the 25-year-old singer appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or “some other substance” when she struck dancer Sherene Flash at the summer ball in Berkeley Square, central London, last September.

Winehouse, who performed at the ball before she is alleged to have assaulted Flash, gave her name as Amy Jade Civil at the start of her trial at the City of Westminster magistrates court. Thompson said all the witnesses in the case knew her better as Amy Winehouse.

Winehouse, wearing a grey pinstripe skirt suit, sat quietly in the dock with her head bowed as the prosecution opened the case.

The court heard the incident happened in a dressing room soon after midnight on September 26. Thompson said Flash asked “politely” for a photograph of Winehouse.

The court heard the star appeared reluctant at first, but then agreed.

Flash was with a drunk friend called Kieran Connelly and as he tried to get into the photo Flash was taking, Winehouse punched Flash to her right eye, the court heard.

“It may be that it was that that annoyed Miss Winehouse,” Thompson said.

“Miss Winehouse may have felt she had generously agreed to be photographed on her own and not with a drunken stranger.”

But he said: “This was a deliberate assault by Miss Winehouse. There was nothing accidental about Miss Winehouse’s actions. She reacted badly to a polite request.”

He told the court that while stars of Winehouse’s stature may find such requests “tiresome”, they “need to develop strategies to deal with unwanted attention”.

Thompson said that when Winehouse was arrested and questioned on March 5 she issued a prepared statement before answering “no comment” to questions.

The singer told police she had told Flash she wanted to say goodbye to someone else first, but Flash put her arm around her and told her the other person “could wait”.

Thompson said: “Miss Winehouse admitted she was offended and claimed to feel intimidated.”

But he said she told police her only physical reaction was to push Flash away with her forearm. Winehouse also told police that Flash put her arm around her.

Thompson said: “Far from having her arm around her, Miss Flash was not even standing next to Miss Winehouse.

“The movement of her arm was indicative of a direct blow.”

Patrick Gibbs, cross examining Flash, argued that Winehouse had agreed to be photographed but had asked the dancer to come back later .

Flash rejected this and insisted the singer had said nothing of the sort.

Gibbs continued: “What happened is this. You wanted to be in a photo with Miss Winehouse. When she said: ‘I am coming back in two minutes time,’ you weren’t prepared to wait.

“You put your arm around her and she pushed you away, and she must have caught you on the side of your eye.”

He asked if there was an unwritten rule about not requesting performers to pose for photos in the backstage area.

Flash replied: “No, you just know your place.”

Gibbs asked if the dancer may have misread the situation.

She answered: “Even if I did, it doesn’t give someone the right to punch someone in the face.”

The dancer acknowledged that she had drunk wine, champagne and sips of a cocktail during the evening but insisted that she had not been drunk.

She said: “In that environment I am at work, so I don’t drink too much.”

She said she had behaved politely during her conversation with Winehouse.