Woman accusing Ed Sheeran of copyright collapses

LONDON - There was drama during musician Ed Sheeran’s federal copyright trial on Wednesday that suddenly threw the proceedings into chaos.

Kathryn Townsend Griffin, the woman who is accusing Sheeran of copying parts of his 2014 song Thinking Out Loud with elements from her father’s iconic 1973 soul classic ‘Let’s Get it On’, suddenly collapsed in court while a music expert was being cross-examined.

Townsend Griffin is the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Marvin Gaye. Just as Sheeran’s attorneys began cross-examining music expert, Alexander Stewart, Townsend Griffin was walking out of the courtroom when she suddenly fell.

She was helped up by several people who worked to lift her arms and legs, but she ultimately had to be stretchered out of court after receiving medical attention.

Her lawyer did not disclose the reason for her fainting but said that she had a pre-existing medical condition.

The incident caused a seven-minute delay before Judge Louis Stanton ordered the proceedings to continue.

During Stewart’s testimony, he outlined the similarities between the two hit songs, noting how they ‘have the same harmonic rhythm’ while pointing out melodic similarities in the verse, chorus, and interlude.

In a bizarre turn of events, a computer-generated rendition of ‘Let’s Get it On’ was played in court during Stewart’s testimony, which took up all of Wednesday.

Townsend Griffin, who was wearing a beige coat with ‘Dignity’ spelled on the back, had commented during an earlier break in the proceedings that the AI version of the song would have made her father ‘laugh’ if he heard it.