Cheryl Tweedy:
Guilty of Drunken Attack
The pop star insisted last night she was not a racist, after she was found guilty of attacking a black nightclub attendant. The 20-year-old Girls Aloud singer said she was "stunned and disappointed" after a jury at Kingston Crown Court found her guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. But the singer said she was pleased that she had been cleared of another charge of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Judge Richard Haworth sentenced Tweedy to 120 hours’ community service and ordered her to pay £500 compensation to victim Sophie Amogbokpa and £3,000 prosecution costs. The judge said it was an "unpleasant piece of drunken violence" and said that Tweedy, of Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, had shown "no remorse whatsoever". After the sentencing, the pop star stood outside court with her mother and tour manager, while her solicitor, Paul Harris, read out a statement on her behalf. In it, she said she was "thankful that the jury had accepted that this incident has nothing to do with race". Tweedy punched Ms Amogbokpa, 39, a part-time law student, in a row over a handful of lollipops in the lavatory of The Drink nightclub in Guildford, Surrey, on 11 January. Ms. Amogbokpa was left with a black eye and bruising. Judge Haworth gave the community service sentence after receiving a probation report saying she was unlikely to re-offend and said he had taken into account her age and previous good character. The jury of seven men and five women convicted Tweedy by a majority of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Tweedy let out a gasp and covered her face with her hands when the jury foreman announced the verdict. The singer claimed she was acting in self-defense when she punched Miss Amogbokpa.
Warhol's Artwork Fails to
Sell .
A work by
Andy Warhol has failed to reach its asking price at a London auction, having
been expected to fetch up to £400,000.
Warhol, who pioneered 1960s Pop Art, painted his
artwork $ in 1982. Gauguin's oil painting, La Petite Laveuse, got the
highest price of £164,000, at Bonhams contemporary art sale. Roy
Lichtenstein works were also sold, but an Auguste Rodin sculpture expected
to get up to £60,000 also remained on the shelf. However two paintings by
Claude Pissaro, including Le Lac de Monsouris, sold for £3,687 each. Two
thirds of the sale's offerings were from private collections. La Petite
Laveuse is believed to have been owned by Amedee Schuffenecker, who dealt in
Gauguin's paintings after acquiring them from his brother, who was a friend
of the artist. Seven Lichtenstein works were for sale, but only three sold
for £7,500 each. They are taken from his Interiors series of eight images
which depict rooms inside a house.
They
were produced in 1990 at the latter end of the US artist's successful
career. The bronze Rodin statue Pierre de Wiessant was originally made in
1885 as a study for the figure of de Wiessant from the monument Les
Bourgeois de Calais.
Photo: Paul Gauguin's artwork fetched the highest price
Other oil paintings
which sold include Max Oppenheimer's Vienna String Quartet for £71,289, and
Fausto Pirandello Bagnanti's Tetti di Roma, which fetched £54,970 - more than
double its pre-sale estimate. And a limited edition etching by Pablo Picasso,
Sculpteur et Trois Danseuses Sculptees, was bought for £5,531, while a ceramic
ewer by the same artist fetched £2,704. Contemporary works under the hammer
included a rare complete set of four prints by Op Art artist Bridget Riley,
but they also did not attract buyers. A large selection of contemporary
photography by Vanessa Beecroft, Wolfgang Tillmans, Candida Hofer, Andreas
Gursky, Thomas Struth, Gunther Forg and Thomas Ruff also featured.
Continues next.