Mica Paris bitten and slapped by neighbour in parking row
A FORMER contestant on Strictly Come Dancing was bitten on the finger during a row over a parking space, a court heard.
Mica Paris, a 48-year-old soul singer who appeared as a contestant on the fourth series of the BBC dancing competition in 2006, was slapped and bitten by a neighbour outside her apartment block in Paddington.
City of London magistrates’ court heard how the singer was attacked by 41-year-old Emanuela Veloso after Paris’s chauffeur parked in what Veloso claimed was “her” space.
The prosecution described how Veloso then parked her own car in front of Paris’s vehicle in order to wait to confront the driver on their return.
The court heard how Veloso, a Brazilian whose claims to have been acting in self-defence were dismissed, was accused by the prosecution of being “enraged” and “gesticulating” during the confrontation on July 1, during which she reportedly screamed: “Everybody is always parking in my space.”
Paris described to the court how, on her return, Veloso and her partner, Francesca Del Greco, approached her “aggressively”. She told the court: “The two women became upset and were very, very angry. I jokingly said you could have just left a note – at that point, I was slapped across the face.”
During the argument, Paris said she struck Veloso with her right hand in self-defence but she “kept coming at me”. Veloso then sank her teeth into her finger, she said. “She literally had it in her mouth. I could see there was blood. I remember her being very upset that I was joking, that I had a joking manner.” She told the court that after the brawl she went to St Mary’s Hospital for treatment for a bloodied finger. “They thought I had been bitten by an animal,” Paris said. “It took two weeks for my finger to heal. It was completely blue and purple.”
CCTV footage played in court showed Veloso and her partner approaching the singer prior to the argument. Prosecutor Aimee Emby said: “That is not a calm stroll down to the car, is it? The reality of the situation is that you were not the calm person that you would like us to believe. You lost your temper.”
‘She literally had my finger in her mouth. It took two weeks to heal. It was completely blue and purple’
Veloso said of Paris: “She is a very large woman. She was screaming and pointing her finger in my face. She did not stop, she was towering over me – I slapped her to try to get her away from me.” Veloso said she bit her finger to “try and get her off me”.
Ordering Veloso to pay costs of £620 and a victim surcharge of £20, Magistrate William Hammond said she was guilty of assault. “We have listened to all of the evidence and we accept that you did slap the complainant. What we have had to consider is whether this also was in self-defence. We have viewed the CCTV footage from both angles several times. However, we find that this also was not in self-defence but an act of aggression.”