How pub fight led to bribe claims

Blake Fielder-Civil attacked James King outside a pub in Hoxton

The reasons are unclear but the two men who carried out the attack, one of them being Amy Winehouse's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, seem to have been determined to avoid prison.

It all led to a plan to get the victim to withdraw his statement, but the scheme ultimately failed.

Fielder-Civil, 26, of Camden, north London, has been sentenced to a total of 27 months in prison for assault and perverting the course of justice.

Michael Brown, 40, of Carshalton, south London, was given 33 months for grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. Both pleaded guilty.

Brown, a friend of Fielder-Civil, had an "unspecified" grievance towards Mr King and had previously dated one of Mr King's friends, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

At the MacBeth pub on 20 June, Brown tried to coax Mr King outside.

He refused but the court heard Brown grabbed him and launched a vicious attack on the 36-year-old, with the help of Fielder-Civil.

Broken cheekbone

Mr King told the court he remembered hearing screams of "let's kill him, let's do him" while being punched and kicked by Fielder-Civil and Brown.

He suffered a broken cheekbone and had to undergo surgery to insert a metal plate for a shattered eye socket.

Another plate was put in his cheekbone and pins now hold his jaw together.

The incident was reported to the police and both Fielder-Civil and Brown were arrested and charged with assault.

I was told to look as though I was under duress James King, pub landlord

But it was not long before the pub landlord started to be pressured and bribed into withdrawing his statement.

He was visited by Anthony Kelly, a 25-year-old north Londoner from Chalk Farm, who claimed to represent "a firm of gangsters" who wanted the charges to go away. He was offered �200,000 plus an all expenses paid trip to Spain.

The court heard Kelly intimidated Mr King telling him he had "no option" but to withdraw his evidence so that Fielder-Civil and Brown would be found not guilty of assault.

Bribe plot meeting

Unknown to Mr King, Kelly, and James Kennedy, 19, from Hatfield, Hertfordshire - who acted as the middlemen - went to a tabloid newspaper trying to sell CCTV images of the original attack.

The pair increased the stakes after the newspaper showed little interest and said there was "a bigger story" - there was a �200,000 bribe being offered to Mr King to ensure that Fielder-Civil and Brown would not go to jail.

Mr King told the court that on 5 November 2007 Kelly turned up at his home and told him to copy out a prepared statement while being filmed.

"I was told to look as though I was under duress," Mr King told the court.

"I was told to look like someone was pointing a gun at me while I was writing it."

Kelly and Kennedy, who hoped to make �20,000 for brokering the deal, met Daily Mirror journalist Stephen Moyes in October.

Sean Larkin, for the prosecution, said: "Stephen Moyes asked whether or not Amy Winehouse was involved.

"He was told by Kelly, 'who do you think is paying for it, of course she is'."

Unanimously cleared

Unknown to the Grammy award-winning singer and her husband, a meeting about King's alleged deal to "throw the case", between the couple, Brown, and the two middle men, Kelly and Kennedy, would have been taped by the Daily Mirror, the court heard.

But after several hours of waiting, the meeting never took place.

"At that stage we were told that Amy and Blake were going to Munich for an MTV awards show," Mr Moyes told the jury.

But there was no evidence to suggest that the singer was part of the plot, the court heard.

Mr King was unanimously cleared by a jury last month at Snaresbrook Crown Court of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Kelly was sentenced to 20 months and Kennedy was given a 40-week sentence at a young offenders institute, suspended for 12 months.

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