Girls Aloud singer screamed abuse, witness tells court

Pop star Cheryl Tweedy became “hysterical” when a female nightclub toilet attendant tried to reclaim a handful of lollipops from her that she had taken without leaving a tip, a court heard today.

The 20-year-old Girls Aloud singer screamed abuse and punched Sophie Amogbokpa in the face after saying she did not have to pay for the sweets, a witness to the row told the court.

Bryony Gibbs said she had seen Tweedy and her fellow band member Nicola Roberts in the upstairs toilets of The Drink nightclub in Guildford, Surrey, where Mrs Amogbokpa worked, in the early hours of January 11 this year.

She said she thought Tweedy was drunk. The singer had fallen over as she texted on her mobile while dancing on the dance floor.

Miss Gibbs told Kingston Crown Court that the row between Tweedy and the toilet attendant began at just after 1am, after the singer used make-up and took some lollies from the display in the ladies’ lavatory without paying.

She said: “The toilet attendant was saying to Cheryl ’I want payment for the lollipops’ and Cheryl was saying ’I do not have to pay for the lollies’.

“She (Tweedy) said ’You f****** bitch, I don’t have to pay for these lollies’.”

Miss Gibbs continued: “She (Tweedy) seemed hysterical, she was just hysterical – shouting a lot and she was still drunk.

“She (the toilet attendant) kept on repeating ’I want payment for those lollies’.

“When the toilet attendant leaned forward to take away the lollies from Cheryl, Cheryl punched her.”

Miss Gibbs said Tweedy’s friend, who was also in the toilets at the time, then tried to calm Tweedy down.

“Cheryl was still screaming at the toilet attendant, she was still saying ’You f****** bitch’,” she said.

“I was a bit scared, that is why I left.”

Miss Gibbs told the court that Tweedy asked her friend, Miss Roberts, to go and get security during the row.

Tweedy, of Heaton, Newcastle, appeared in court with her dark blonde streaked hair tied back in a ponytail, and wearing a cream striped jacket and black top.

She denies racially aggravated assault occasioning actual body harm and the alternative charge of assault occasioning actually bodily harm.

The court had earlier heard that Mrs Amogbokpa , a 39-year-old part-time law student, had been left with bruising and swelling on her face for three months after the incident.