Murder Trial: Educational Tutor Plunged Kitchen Knife Into Boyfriend

Knife: Charlotte Kerr

A training tutor plunged a kitchen knife through her boyfriend’s heart during yet another argument between the squabbling pair, a court heard.

The couple sometimes even rowed via text messages when together in their small one-bedroom flat and neighbours reported hearing frequent shouting matches, Croydon Crown Court was told.

Charlotte Kerr, 36, and Giovanni Wallace, 29, both trained prospective nursery and school teachers and began dating less than a year earlier.

“At 7.39am on Sunday, October 25, 2020 Ms Kerr spoke to a 999 operator and asked for an ambulance to come quickly to Clyde Road, Addiscombe,” said prosecutor Danny Robinson QC.

“Minutes earlier she had stabbed her boyfriend Mr Wallace in the chest with a kitchen knife.

“When she made the 999 call Mr Wallace was lying on the stairs of the property and neighbours were trying to give him first aid.”

Sadly, despite the efforts of paramedics nothing could be done to save Mr Wallace and he was pronounced dead at the address at 8.26am.

“She told the police officers that attended that she had stabbed Mr Wallace.

“He suffered a stab wound to the chest that penetrated his heart, causing him to lose a large amount of blood.

“She says Mr Wallace was trying to strangle her so she stabbed him to the chest in lawful self-defence.”

Showing photographs of the scene to the jurors Mr Robinson told them: “You will see some heavy blood-staining to clothing and in the flat’s communal area.”

Father-of-two Mr Wallace has children aged ten and three years-old from a previous relationship and started seeing Kerr in December, 2019, quickly moving into her flat.

However, their rows were so intense neighbours called police to the property in May, 2020 when Kerr was heard shouting: “F*** off and leave.”

Shortly before his death Mr Wallace asked his father if he could move in with him to get away from Kerr. “They had a big row about IVF and having children  and the defendant was accusing him of having an affair.”

Police examined the couple’s mobile phones during the investigation.

“They found evidence of a number of text arguments,” said the prosecutor. “Sometimes they would argue by text when alone in the flat together.”

A month before the stabbing police found a 4.55am text row concerning “the rejection of Kerr by Mr Wallace sexually,” Mr Robinson told the trial.

On the morning of October 25 they were again rowing via text.

“Mr Wallace was asking Ms Kerr to ’shut up’ because he wanted to sleep and quickly became very argumentative,” said the prosecutor.

Mr Wallace texted: “My last ex was like that. I hate you, I really f***ing do. It’s the biggest mistake I f***ing made.”

The texting escalated to verbal arguing, even waking-up the next-door neighbour. “Both Ms Kerr and Mr Wallace sounded angry.

“Shortly before the stabbing the words: ‘F*** off then,” were heard and the neighbours downstairs heard loud shouting, mainly from Ms Kerr.”

The downstairs neighbour left their flat and witnessed the bloody scene. “They saw Giovanni Wallace lying in the communal hallway and Ms Kerr told them to call an ambulance and they started CPR.

Kerr told her neighbours: “He strangled me and I stabbed him.”

Kerr has pleaded not guilty to one count of murdering Mr Wallace at the flat on October 25, 2020.

Trial continues…………….  

Groupon Massage Therapist Accused Of Molesting Three Woman

Accused: Jay Steel

A massage therapist molested three women, who had all bought Groupon discount vouchers, with one fearing she would be raped, a court heard.

They all separately complained to the police they had been variously touched between the legs, had their breasts fondled or made to touch the masseur’s crotch.

Jay Steel, 60, of Whieldon Road, Stoke-on-Trent has pleaded not guilty to a total of seven counts of sexually assaulting the women at two London locations between February 27, 2017 and April 4, 2019.

The first complaint, a 32 year-old media professional told Croydon Crown Court Steel had a room in a Shand Thames dental surgery, near London Bridge that she visited on February 27, 2017.

“He was touching places only my boyfriend would touch,” she told the jury via her police video-recorded statement. 

She said she was face-down on the treatment table and Steel touched her between her legs when she asked for them to be massaged after a recent work-out injury. 

“As he went higher and higher I thought: ‘Where are you going?’ I totally freaked and must have made a sound because he said he was sorry and I felt so embarrassed for him.

“It happened again within a few minutes and I was flabbergasted. I made a horribly groaning croaky noise that was like: ‘Get the f*** off me.’

“This was under my underwear and I felt like I was not safe anymore and the person I had come to for help was a bit of a creep.

“I could feel myself tearing up and I was so embarrassed I froze.

“I just lay there like a dead animal thinking: ‘What’s the worst he can do in five minutes?’ I was so frightened that if I got up, I’m eight-and-a-half stone and he’s fourteen or fifteen stone.

“I couldn’t do anything. I was thinking: ‘You’re going to get raped or he he could really hurt you.’

“I booked a twenty-minute massage and got a two-hour ordeal,” she added, explaining Steel then placed each of her hands between his legs.

“He was using the shaking movement of my hand to touch himself. It was the kind of situation you think stupid ditzy girls get into.

“His breathing changed as if he was getting aroused.

‘His hands went into my bra and he started massaging really hard and it was causing me pain and I was going: ‘Argh, argh.’

“I could feel him touching my nipples. I was tearing up and he did this for ten minutes and mumbled something about lactic build-up.” 

She admitted not shouting out to Steel’s receptionist, telling him to stop or trying to flee the treatment room. “I was half-naked,” she said. “I was not sure how far I would get.”

Earlier prosecutor Judith Benson told the jury the second woman saw Steel on March 17, 2019. “She described him pushing her buttocks apart and pressing his crotch against her right hand.”

The woman also told police Steel touched her between her legs and moved her hand between his legs. “She also said she could feel her bra coming away from her body.”

The third woman saw Steel on April 4, 2019. “He focused on her groin and buttock area over her clothing in a rubbing movement,” said Ms Benson.

She says he also told her to adopt the ‘downward dog’ yoga position, resulting in her rear being raised. “She felt he was staring at her.”

The woman also told police Steel placed her hand between his legs and she told the friend she went with it was a “weird” experience.

Via his defence Steel says he behaved “perfectly properly” and did not intentionally touch the complainants intimately.

Trial continues………….  

School Deputy Headmaster Denies Rubbing Girl Pupils' Legs

A school deputy headmaster yesterday denied groping the legs of five teenage girls in his office “for his own sexual gratification.”

Matthew Childs, 33, repeatedly said “no” to claims he rubbed his hands and legs against four fourteen year-olds and a fifteen year-old in his private office at Purley’s Harris Academy.

Croydon Crown Court heard the married father-of-two, of Ladygrove, Pixton Way, Forestdale would squeeze knees and run his hands up the skirts of the pupils.

He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child on various dates between January 1 and June 30, 2019.

The geography teacher conceded there may have been unintentional knee-to-knee contact when the girls sat close to him in his office.

“It could have happened accidentally, yes. If I was sitting in my chair at the computer and turned around my knee might haver knocked against theirs very briefly, for half a second,” Childs told the jury.

When asked by his defence lawyer if he had ever accidentally placed his hand on  a girl’s knee the vice-principal said: “Not that I am aware of.”

Asked them same question about touching a girl’s thigh Childs emphatically replied: “No.”

On the subject of making physical contact with any children he told the court: “No absolutely not.

“It is not something we would ever do. That is clear through and through and it is not something I would ever do.

“We have clear training and updates.”

When asked if there had ever been any similar complaints during his teaching career Childs replied: “Never anywhere. No.”

He also told the trial it was a rarity to have a behind-closed-doors discussion with pupils in his office.

“The door would be open when they came in. The was open even if I was in there on my own.

“Whenever pupils came in the door always remained open. The door would have been opened all the time.”

Childs said his office door would be closed on the rare occasions a pupil wanted to talk about a sensitive subject.

He also said his open office was directly opposite the office of a female teacher and near the school Principal’s PA. 

The jury were played the police interview of the first girl, aged fourteen years-old, who said: “I would get detention often and seeing he was in a high place of power get him to talk about it and take it off.

“I would have to sit near him and his leg would rub up and then his hand brushing over my knee, his hand on the knee and then squeezing and up my leg.

“He attempted to touch the underneath of my thigh,” added the girl, revealing her family were reluctant to report the alleged incident.

“My mum did not want to call the police in case it was a misunderstanding and she told me to move away from him.”

Earlier prosecutor Paul Casey told the trial: “He was a teacher in a position of trust, a vice-principal, what was known as a deputy head.

“He had oversight at the secondary school where pupils trusted him and came to see him to air problems and he had a safeguarding role.

“He acted as a de facto court of appeal at Harris Academy and abused that power and his position of trust for his own sexual gratification.

“He touches, with his hands and his own legs the legs of girls who came into his room,” added the prosecutor. “The repetitive nature of that activity is at the heart of the case.

“This happened repeatedly in similar circumstances. There is a sense of modus operandi here.

“Mr Childs may suggest these girls have got together to do him in by making false allegations to ruin his life and career.”

Police were first alerted by Croydon local authority on June 18, 2019 of complaints from three of the girls and two more came forward in the following weeks.

The first girl said Childs touched her on at least six different occasions and the second girl, also aged fourteen, said there were at least two incidents.

“He would brush his fingers against and up my leg and get higher,” said the second girl.”

The third girl, aged fifteen years-old, said: “I felt like he touched my leg. I moved my leg and felt it again.”

The fourth girl, 14, had to write a statement in Childs’ office. “His knee kept touching me,” she said.

The fifth girl, 14, said there was another pupil in Childs’ office when he touched her. “He placed his hand on my leg and did it again and started moving his hand up my skirt.

“He was talking to us about using a condom to have sex with someone and started talking sexually to us.”

Mr Casey told the jury: “There is an increasing boldness from Mr Childs in the nature of his language and conversation and touching a girl in front of another.”

When questioned Childs said the first girl had effectively “started a protest” within the school.

The second girl had skipped lessons and confided in him she had sex with a boy in a disused Waddon flat.

“I had to report what she told me. She’s got it in for me,” said Childs.

He said the third girl had “issues in life” and would visit his office “to chat and unload,” conceding it was possible there had been accidental contact when he turned in his chair.

Regarding the fourth girl Childs said his headmaster warned him there was a “possibility” of accidental touching.

Childs said the fifth girl got into shouting matches with other pupils  and “would stir it up.”

The prosecutor told the trial: “Maybe this was an opportunity, you may feel, to get his retaliation in first and trash those making a complaint.”

Trial continues…………. 

Office Co-Ordinator Defrauded Property Firm

The co-ordinator of a property company kept tenants’ deposits for herself, dishonestly used the firm’s credit card and secretly paid her own cleaning company, a court heard.

Tianna Melius, 23, who has recently found another job with a London estate agent, received a suspended prison sentence today and was ordered to repay some of the money she took.

Melius, of Queen’s Mead Road, Bromley pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by abuse of position to make gains of £4,496.47; £1,415.50 and £327 between January 14 and February 18, last year.

Croydon Crown Court heard she worked for Brixton property company Lexadon and on two occasions transferred tenants’ deposits to her own accounts.

She also used the company credit card to spend £800 at Argos and £615 at IKEA and used Lexadon funds to pay her own company, Speedy Cleaners, £387.

“Her responsibilities included dealing with money, she had use of the company credit card and handled the tenants’ deposits,” said prosecutor Nicholas Mesure.

The first £2,446 deposit she took “bounced back” to Lexadon’s account and there was no loss and the second deposit of £2,050, due to a female renter, ended up in Melius’ account.

“The tenant Lucy Snowden did chase it and it is only as a result of her chasing it that the fraud was discovered,” added the prosecutor.

Melius was arrested on June 30. “She denied she was dishonest when she was interviewed,” said Mr Mesure, applying for £3,792 compensation to Lexadon.

“She has recently obtained a job with a an estate agency and she would like to pay the amount in full,” said Sarah Fairbairn, defending. “She admits she took the money and is embarrassed about it.

“She had a difficult childhood and upbringing and her relationship with her mother broke down when her boyfriend was arrested for a firearms offence.

“He died in a 2020 car crash and she was homeless as her mother would not take her back.

“She was living in a hostel and felt unsafe and was desperate for her own home. She was rejected for a loan and needed a deposit for a private rental.

“Out of desperation she chose to commit these offences as a last resort and is extremely remorseful.”

Recorder Katherine Deal QC told the first-time offender: “You abused your position as office co-ordinator to benefit yourself, but it was not a sophisticated fraud.

“There was some early panicky efforts to avoid a confrontation with your employer and it is disappointing how ready you were to look for money that was not yours.

“I hope this was a one-off offence in extreme circumstances that will not be repeated.”

Melius was also ordered to complete 150 hours community service work, twenty-five days of a Probation Service-ordered rehabilitation activity requirement and pay Lexadon £1,000 compensation.

Drunken Troublemaker Racially-Abused Street Warden

A drunken troublemaker racially-abused a council street warden and threatened police when he was arrested outside a Clapham pub.

Eritrean-born Ammanuel Kesete, 31, had to be held down in front of the Two Brewers pub, Clapham High Street by security staff while waiting for police to arrive.

He caused trouble in the pub and called a Wandsworth Council street warden a “Paki” during the melee.

Kesete, of Bridges Drive, Dartford, Kent pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated threatening behaviour towards local authority employee Mohamed Ali on October 16, last year.

He also pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated threatening behaviour towards a PC Grey and threatening behaviour towards a PC Hoskin.

Croydon Magistrates Court heard Kesete, who receives Universal Credit and is in dispute with his neighbours, has three previous convictions.

Police were called to the pub, where they saw an aggressive Kesete shouting in the street while being restrained by the pub's security staff.

He was handcuffed, but somehow managed to slip out of them during the struggle.

Officers said his arms were flailing as he threatened to spit at the officers.

The court heard in 2020 Kesete was the victim of a stabbing and on another occasion attempted to self harm while in police custody.

His defence representative complained Kesete has no support network, concluding “he needs help.”

The magistrates sentenced him to a twelve-month Community Order, which includes 150 hours community service work, plus sixty days of monitored alcohol abstinence.

He was also ordered to pay £100 costs, a £95 victim surcharge, plus £50 compensation to each of the three victims.

“There was a racial element to these offences,” announced the magistrate.

Guilty: Troubled Young Woman Caught On Southbank With Razor Blade

Croydon Magistrates' Court

A troubled young woman, who travelled to London to self-harm with a razor, has been convicted of possessing a blade in public.

Chiara Hudson, 23, told the trial she also threatened to throw herself in front of a tube train.

“I had come down to London to try and kill myself,” she told Croydon Magistrates Court, where she was convicted of possessing a bladed article in Southbank, Southwark on March 2.

Hudson, of Park Avenue, Shawbury, Shrewsbury was bailed to return to court for sentencing on May 16.

She had been locked-up since her arrest and was remanded in custody at HMP Bronzefield until the court bailed her at the conclusion of the trial on condition she live and sleep every night at her home address.

The trial heard Hudson was in possession of a three-and-a-half centimetre long razor blade broken into two pieces.

Police found her near the Royal Festival Hall at 1.15pm with superficial cuts to her arm, which she admitted were caused by a razor blade.

Hudson told the trial she had called the police herself after hearing they were looking for her.

“I got a call from the British Transport Police, saying they were looking for me all night and I then called the police to tell them where I was.

“The British Transport Police had calls from my Probation Officer saying I was missing and may have had a blade on me.

“I told them: 'I don't trust you. I don't want you near me. I'm fine.'

“Mentally I was not in a good place, I was suicidal.

“I was detained at Embankment Station by the police for threatening to jump in front of a train.”

The court heard police took Hudson into custody when she admitted having the blade.

She pleaded not guilty on the basis she had the reasonable excuse of self-harm for possessing the blade and prosecutor Corran Helm said: “The Crown will say this is not a reasonable excuse to carry a blade in public.”

PC Chris Lawrence told the trial: “She called the police and said she had a blade on her and wanted to harm herself.”

Finance Chief's Hotel Fight With Mistress

A finance boss, who assaulted his mistress during a bloody drunken row in a City hotel, has received a suspended prison sentence.

Father-of-three Damien Druce, 43, the commercial manager of a bridging loan company, bit the woman’s nose and put his hand over her mouth, the court heard.

The pair secretly met-up during the business trip in a room at the London Central Bank Hotel, St. Swithin’s Lane after an evening drinking wine, Inner London Crown Court was told.

Former Cheshire East councillor Druce, of Old Mill Lane, Macclesfield pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting Sarah John, causing her actual bodily harm, on December 9, 2020.

Three further counts of assaulting her at the same hotel on November 2; at NOX Hotel-Waterloo in November 25 and her Salford home on October 9 were dropped by the prosecution.

“The background on the Crown’s description is this was a volatile relationship,” said Judge Freya Newbery. “She was someone you had been having, to use the old-fashioned word, an affair with.

“This was a work-based relationship and it was not one-way. Ms John was quite capable of being volatile and you drank together as well and that never assisted that situation.

“You were both staying in the same hotel in that working relationship and having got back after drinking wine a trivial argument started, with anger on both sides.

“You lunged at the victim and you grabbed her by the throat, but this is not a strangulation case, but your use of that motion to push her backwards.

“At one point you had your hand in her mouth and your fingers down her throat and she was pinned down by you.

“As you were shouting into her face she bit your finger while it was in her mouth and you bit her on the bridge of her nose, which she recalled as being ‘absolutely excruciating.’

“It did break the skin and there was some blood and she had a chip to her front tooth and bruising to her shoulder blades.

“The tooth was not chipped by a blow from you, but from movement during the dynamic violent situation,” added Judge Newbery. “There was also bruising to her forehead and nose and other grazes and bruising.

“She took a taxi home all the way back to Salford and does not want to be involved further and has not filed a victim impact statement.”

Druce’s lawyer Terry Pedro told the court: “He makes no excuse for this offence and does not want me to defend his actions.

“He recognises it was wrong to use violence and he is ashamed of the actions he has taken and that he is back before a court.

“He has a senior job in mortgage and finance and there are a considerable amount of people who rely on him. He is in well-paid employment.”

The court heard that Druce’s marriage recently ended. “He has got a lot of debts because of his divorce,” said Judge Newbery.

“Your previous convictions were when you were a much younger man, twenty years-old or so and there is an offence of violence , being drunk and disorderly and driving offences.

“You take a keen interest in the community with charitable work and the Probation Service describe you as a pro-social member of the community,” the judge told Druce.

“I don’t believe anything like this is ever going to happen again. You are an intelligent person and you do not want to put forward excuses.

“You have shown insight and remorse and you know this cannot happen again.”

Druce was sentenced to twenty weeks imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months and ordered to pay £2,000 costs.

He must also attend up to 40 sessions of the Probation Service’s building better relationships programme and 40 days of a recommended rehabilitation requirement.

Druce was also made subject to a two-year restraining order, prohibiting contact with Ms John or visiting her Salford home.

“Neither of them want anything to do with each other for a couple of years,” concluded the judge.

School Deputy Head Accused Of Rubbing Girl Pupils' Legs

A school deputy headmaster groped the legs of five teenage girls in his office “for his own sexual gratification,” a court heard.

Matthew Childs, 33, denies rubbing his hands and legs against four fourteen year-olds and a fifteen year-old in his private office at Purley’s Harris Academy.

Croydon Crown court heard the married father-of-two, of Ladygrove, Pixton Way, Forestdale would squeeze knees and run his hands up the skirts of the pupils.

He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child on various dates between January 1 and June 30, 2019.

The jury were played the police interview of the first girl, aged fourteen years-old, who said: “I would get detention often and seeing he was in a high place of power get him to talk about it and take it off.

“I would have to sit near him and his leg would rub up and then his hand brushing over my knee, his hand on the knee and then squeezing and up my leg.

“He attempted to touch the underneath of my thigh,” added the girl, revealing her family were reluctant to report the alleged incident.

“My mum did not want to call the police in case it was a misunderstanding and she told me to move away from him.”

Earlier prosecutor Paul Casey told the trial: “He was a teacher in a position of trust, a vice-principal, what was known as a deputy head.

“He had oversight at the secondary school where pupils trusted him and came to see him to air problems and he had a safeguarding role.

“He acted as a de facto court of appeal at Harris Academy and abused that power and his position of trust for his own sexual gratification.

“He touches, with his hands and his own legs the legs of girls who came into his room,” added the prosecutor. “The repetitive nature of that activity is at the heart of the case.

“This happened repeatedly in similar circumstances. There is a sense of modus operandi here.

“Mr Childs may suggest these girls have got together to do him in by making false allegations to ruin his life and career.”

Police were first alerted by Croydon local authority on June 18, 2019 of complaints from three of the girls and two more came forward in the following weeks.

The first girl said Childs touched her on at least six different occasions and the second girl, also aged fourteen, said there were at least two incidents.

“He would brush his fingers against and up my leg and get higher,” said the second girl.”

The third girl, aged fifteen years-old, said: “I felt like he touched my leg. I moved my leg and felt it again.”

The fourth girl, 14, had to write a statement in Childs’ office. “His knee kept touching me,” she said.

The fifth girl, 14, said there was another pupil in Childs’ office when he touched her. “He placed his hand on my leg and did it again and started moving his hand up my skirt.

“He was talking to us about using a condom to have sex with someone and started talking sexually to us.”

Mr Casey told the jury: “There is an increasing boldness from Mr Childs in the nature of his language and conversation and touching a girl in front of another.”

When questioned Childs said the first girl had effectively “started a protest” within the school.

The second girl had skipped lessons and confided in him she had sex with a boy in a disused Waddon flat.

“I had to report what she told me. She’s got it in for me,” said Childs.

He said the third girl had “issues in life” and would visit his office “to chat and unload,” conceding it was possible there had been accidental contact when he turned in his chair.

Regarding the fourth girl Childs said his headmaster warned him there was a “possibility” of accidental touching.

Childs said the fifth girl got into shouting matches with other pupils  and “would stir it up.”

The prosecutor told the trial: “Maybe this was an opportunity, you may feel, to get his retaliation in first and trash those making a complaint.”

Trial continues…………. 

Violinist Sentenced For Downloading Thousands Of Child Sex Images

An award-winning violinist, who continued downloading sick images of children after a police raid on his home for identical offences, has been sentenced.

Christian Halstead, 45, who studied at the prestigious Royal College of Music, admitted having nearly seven thousand indecent pictures and movies of youngsters.

He is leader of the Whitehall Orchestra and has also performed with the London Mozart Players and City Chamber Orchestra.

Halstead, of Appleton Road, Blackheath was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court.

He received twelve months imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months and was placed on an 18-month Community Order.

Halstead must also complete 200 hours community service work and up to thirty days of a Probation Service-ordered rehabilitation activity requirement.

The court also made him subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and he must pay a £140 victim surcharge.

He previously pleaded guilty when he appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court to three counts of making indecent images of children on various dates between March 2, 2017 and March 18, 2019.

These were 1482 Category A images, the most serious and involving sexual abuse; 1950 Category B images and 3439 Category C images.

Prosecutor Emek Yagmur told the court on that occasion: “The defendant was arrested in 2017 after reports of internet activity from his premises.

“Police attended and seized a number of items and while under investigation this defendant has used the internet to download more images from facebook; Kick and Tumblr.”

Halstead has no convictions for similar offences.

While at the Royal College of Music Halstead won the Concerto Award, plus other prizes and performed before poet and author Lady Ursula Vaughan-Williams.

He has also performed as a freelance violinist with St. Paul’s Sinfonia, was a founder member of the Southbank Sinfonia and was First Violin with the Abraxas Ensemble.

Threatening Caller: "I Don't Know If I Am Guilty Or Not"

A Derby man, currently locked-up in top-security HMP Belmarsh, told a court last week he does not know if he is guilty or not, despite previously admitting making threatening phone calls to his local constabulary.

Danesh Joshi, 49, appeared in custody at Inner London Crown Court, where he complained of suffering from memory loss and anxiety.

“I am at Belmarsh. I was at Thameside and somebody made an allegation about me that I was going to kill my probation officer, but did not take it forward.”

Previous offender Joshi, of Portland Street, Cavendish earlier pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Derbyshire Police and persistently making use of a public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety on December 18, last year.

He admitted the offences when he appeared via videolink at Croydon Magistrates Court, where a charge of making threats to kill were dropped.

“I have been suffering from memory loss and it is a complicated situation,” he told Judge Freya Newbery from the dock.

“I am also suffering from anxiety and have not had my medication and realistically I don't know if I am guilty or not.”

Judge Newbery told Joshi: “These offences potentially cross the custody threshold,” and the court heard the maximum sentence is two years imprisonment.

“I married an individual who caused problems, blackmailed me and threatened to put me away for a very long time so I could not go to the police,” added Joshi.

“I have been removed from my own home, which is mortgaged and she is still there and I'm in London with life-sentence prisoners giving me bad advice.”

Joshi was not represented for his second Crown Court hearing and Judge Newbery told him: “You are an educated and articulate man. Why don't you press the Governor there to get a number for a solicitor?

“You don't want to leave this too long because you're in custody and you need to get a solicitor.”

Joshi was again remanded in custody until May 3 to obtain a legal representative.

"Intoxicated" Fashion Grad's Covid Mask Row

A drunken fashion graduate threw a Covid-19 warning sign and a glass picture frame at a bar worker when asked to wear a mask, a court heard today.

Kayla Jones, 26, was visibly intoxicated and insisted she was exempt from the mask mandate when greeted at The Rye pub, Peckham Rye on April 24, last year.

CCTV was played to Croydon Magistrates Court showing Jones flinging the laminated A4-sized sign, which was on an entrance table and the picture frame, smashing it.

Jones, of Goxhill Close, Birchwood Lincoln, whose ambitions to set up her own business within the fashion industry were wrecked by Covid, will return for sentencing on May 23.

She pleaded guilty to assaulting Sam Ayling; causing criminal damage to the pub’s property and being drunk and disorderly.

Prosecutor Corran Helme told the court it was 8.50pm when Jones entered the pub with a female friend.

“The staff member was greeting customers near the entrance and the defendant was asked to wear a face mask.”

The CCTV showed her friend was masked, but Jones was not.

“She said she was exempt and became agitated and loses control while visibly intoxicated,” explained the prosecutor.

“She picked-up the A4 sign, which was about wearing a mask, from the table and threw it at Mr Ayling.

“It bounces off his arm and then she pics up a picture frame and throws it at him and it smashes on the floor.”

The CCTV then showed Mr Ayling quickly pushing Jones out of the pub and blocking the door to prevent re-entry.

“It is hitting with the use of a weapon equivalent,” added Mr Helm. “There are two occasions when she throws the items at the complainant.”

The court heard the offences were “out of character” and Jones publicly apologised to both the victim and the court.

“We are going to need to know a little bit more about you,” said magistrate David Taylor, bailing Jones for a pre-sentence report on condition she does not enter The Rye pub.