EastEnder star Linda cleared of racially abusing street warden
EASTENDERS star Linda Henry was cleared yesterday of racially abusing a black street warden in a row outside a Jamie Oliver restaurant.
Henry, who plays feisty barmaid Shirley Carter in the BBC soap, was accused of using the “N” word as she swore at the woman and allegedly shouted: “Do you know who I am? I’m Shirley!”
The actress clashed with the warden after she and her husband dropped cigarette butts.
After giving a false address, she told Iyabo Adetokunbo: “Who do you think you are? Go away!” the court was told.
She briefly went back inside Jamie’s Italian in Greenwich, south London, but then reappeared and allegedly mouthed the words: “Yeah, yeah, cigarette police.”
Mrs Adetokunbo went to police the following day and Henry was later interviewed.
The warden told the court: “She shouted as if I was nothing and just walked away.”
She added: “She is not above the law.” She had been on duty with a black male colleague and part of their duty was to issue fixed penalty fines for littering.
Charged under her real name Linda Valiris, the 55- year- old actress from Peckham, south London, denied racially aggravated threatening or abusive words.
She told Bexley magistrates court the “N” word is repulsive and possibly the worst in the English language. If she had uttered it, her career would be over, she said.
“If I heard somebody else call somebody that, I’d be absolutely outraged and I would call police immediately, not wait until the next day. “I think it is repulsive.” Henry admitted initially giving false details.
Interviewed by police, Henry admitted throwing away a cigarette butt but insisted racial abuse is “not in her psyche”.
She told officers: “I could swear to God, I would do a lie detector to prove that I didn’t say, ‘ Do you know who I am?’ to a member of the public.”
She said she and her hus- band, their daughter and her boyfriend went to Jamie’s Italian for Sunday lunch last September.
They had been there several times and had often smoked outside, she said.
In a statement read to the court, Henry’s black co- star Diane Parish, who plays Denise Fox, said she did not think the actress would use racist language.
EastEnders’ executive producer, Dominic TreadwellCollins said the “N” word was “absolutely the last thing on earth I’d expect Linda to say”.
District Judge Nigel Dean dismissed the case saying: “I have had different accounts of what took place between Mrs Valiris and Mrs Adetokunbo that afternoon.
“Nobody other than them heard what was said.”
Among Henry’s supporters in the public gallery was former EastEnders co- star Cheryl Fergison, who played Heather Trott.
Henry, also known for her role as Yvonne Atkins in ITV’s Bad Girls, dipped her head and embraced supporters after the verdict was announced.