Reality TV girl attacked Sinitta over affair jibe
A REALITy TV star was found guilty yesterday of attacking the singer Sinitta at a restaurant.
dawn Ward, 42, confronted her in a failed clear-the-air meeting over rumours of a friend having an affair.
Sinitta, 52, said Ward, who appears in ITV’s Real Housewives of Cheshire, threatened to glass her and struck her.
Although Ward was convicted of assault by beating, the judge said Sinitta was not a credible witness.
‘I don’t accept her account,’ district judge Elizabeth Roscoe told Westminster magistrates court. ‘There are inconsistencies between the accounts she has given in court and to police.
‘The CCTV is partial but, it is clear, doesn’t show a punch to the chest or face. I found Miss Ward credible in her account, there is no evidence of contact with Miss Malone [Sinitta].
‘But I’m satisfied that when Mrs Ward prodded or poked Miss Malone it was an assault by beating and was unlawful, although the force was minimal. Therefore I find the case proven.’
The alcohol-fuelled row erupted when Sinitta confronted the mother-of-four over accusing her of spreading rumours on Twitter about a mutual friend, a TV presenter, having an affair.
Before turning away, Sinitta, a friend of entertainment mogul Simon Cowell, sugsage gested that Ward’s husband of 21 years had cheated on her before she turned away, Ward said.
She hit back by calling Sinitta a ‘has been’ one-hit wonder who was hanging on to Cowell’s coat tails.
Sinitta, who reached number 2 in the charts in 1985 with the song So Macho, had told the court she was ‘shocked and humiliated’ by the incident and told police her cheek was sore and bruised.
Ward had told the court: ‘I am a happily married woman and have four children. I often get in trouble because I am very animated.’
The court heard that Sinitta tweeted during the lunch break of the first day of the trial in February and again in the early hours of the next morning.
The judge said: ‘I would ask it to be investigated and I would be grateful if I could be informed if there is a prosecution for contempt.
‘It is a potentially serious matter and not something I can just overlook.’
Christian Wheeliker, prosecuting, told the court the assault may have been a question of a thrown napkin and an ecigarette hitting Sinitta in the face.
‘There was some mention of this throwing of champagne,’ he said. ‘There are inconsistencies, possibly due to the pas- of time. These are not enough to say Miss Malone is lying.
‘The defence say Miss Malone is an attention seeker, but this is not the case. This was unlawful battery.
‘Miss Malone says there was contact to her chest and face. Mrs Ward was acting aggressively in her body language, so aggressively that her friend had to pull her away.’
Lisa Judge, defending Ward, accused Sinitta of making up the accusation and trying to manipulate the court.
Ward was bound over for three months and ordered to pay £500 costs.
The pair had met at Salmontini sushi restaurant in Belgravia, central London, in April last year.
‘A case of napkins at Dawn’