I was attack victim, claims Dappy

Taking the witness stand at Guildford Crown Court in England, he said of his arrest: “I didn’t even want a lawyer or solicitor because I knew it wasn’t anything to do with me…In fact, I feel I was the victim.”

He said that he had been out that night to celebrate the release of his single Rockstar featuring Queen guitarist Brian May and was in the “best mood ever”.

He explained that he had been staying at Farm Studios in Godalming to record his debut solo album.

He said: “(I was the) happiest man on Earth, my album was almost finished, it was a great feeling and my single Rockstar was coming out.

“We had a big legend on the track, it was a great achievement and we were going out to have a great night.”

He said he had not drunk a great deal that night because he was a “lightweight” and had only consumed three or four shots in a VIP area of the nightclub.

Dappy said that he went over to the group at the petrol station to promote his new single.

He said: “My job is simply to do with word of mouth, if I see a bunch of people who will buy my record in the near future I will do my best to get them to buy my record.”

He said that they did not believe him when he said that he had just recorded with May and they started to ridicule him.

Dappy said that his partner and mother of his two children, Kaye Vassell – who is the sister of the third defendant Kieran Vassell – was also present at the petrol station having been out that night with them.

When questioned if he asked the girls to get into his car, he said: “I had the mother of my two kids there, she would hang me upside down if I even looked at anyone.”

He added there would be a “catfight” if he brought girls back to the recording studio and said that there was no room in the car for them anyway.

Dappy denied calling the girls sluts and spitting at them or David Jenkins or hitting him.

Dappy added that he said “Are you serious?” when they started giggling at him at which point Mr Jenkins put him in a headlock.

He said: “They had it in for me, they really didn’t want me to leave being happy with what I had been doing which was promoting my product.

“All I did was be polite, I wanted to find out what the problem was, why they were acting this way towards me.”

He added: “If he hadn’t put me in that headlock there would never have been a physical altercation.

“He brought me straight down to the floor, my whole body was flat on the floor until my security came and got me out of the headlock.”

He added: “Am I not allowed to defend myself if I am put in a rapid headlock?”

The court heard that Dappy had previously pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court to two offences of battery in an earlier and unconnected incident.

These charges related to an incident on November 18, 2008, where he spat at a woman and the spittle hit her in the face as well as another woman, the court heard.

Dappy, 25, charged under his real name of Costadinos Contostavlos, said it happened in a period when he was acting “irrationally” following the sudden death of his father in 2007.

He said: “(He was my) best friend, he was everything to me and my manager for a long time. All of a sudden, out of the blue, just dropped dead, I even gave him mouth-to-mouth. It made me act very irrational. I couldn’t grieve straight away, I was very hurt.

“That made me very, very upset and even now it deeply wounds me.”

The court was told that the 2008 incident involved an argument with a woman who he spat at after she threw some keys at him and slapped him.

He said that he felt “very stupid” at his actions.

The two female witnesses, Grace Cochran and Serena Burton, who alleged Dappy spat at them in the Guildford incident, both admitted sending Twitter messages this week about selling their stories to the newspapers.

Paul Greaney, representing Dappy, confronted Miss Cochran about messages she had posted on Twitter and BBM (BlackBerry messages) about the case.

He said that at 7.12pm on Monday the 19-year-old was sent a tweet saying “Send the c*** down” to which she replied “Ha ha ha in the process”.

Mr Greaney also described a series of tweets and messages in which the two witnesses discussed their plans to sell their story to the media for £1,000.

In one BBM message, Miss Burton wrote: “Ha ha ha, oh my f***, my friend’s dad works in the media and he told her that apparently we can get a grand for that type of story from The Sun or something.”

Miss Cochran replied: “OMF”.

Miss Burton added: “Let’s ring them tomorrow when we leave court, TBF (to be fair).”

Also, after the pair were photographed outside court on Monday, Miss Burton tweeted: “Ha ha ha, love life, now we are famous.”

Miss Cochran replied: “Buzzing to be papped.”

She also admitted discussing what clothes and make-up they would wear for their court appearance.

When asked by Mr Greaney if her intention by giving evidence was to gain attention and money, she replied: “We are both 19-year-old girls and the attention was good in our eyes. It wasn’t our initial intention. I do not think that, standing here now, I want attention.

“I think if anyone knows Serena and I, our characters, it’s a very typical thing to be said, we like to joke around about things like that.”

She added that they had not even considered selling their stories before the start of the trial and the attention they had received in media reports.

Miss Burton admitted sending a BBM message saying that she was going to “bullshit” when she gave her evidence.

In the BBM conversation at 9.50am on Tuesday, the day she had originally been due to give evidence, Miss Burton received a message from someone called Jodie: “OMG definitely sell the story ha ha ha, that’s so good.

“Just say what happened, you are good at talking so you will be fine, ha ha ha.”

Miss Burton replied: “Ha ha ha, I do not even remember, to be fair, but I will bullshit.”

In another BBM message to another friend, Miss Burton wrote: “Going to sell my story to all the magazines and get rich.”

Mr Greaney said that the phones of the two witnesses had been examined by police after the conversations were referred to on Twitter.

He said that a total of 20,000 messages were found on Miss Burton’s phone.

In another message, she wrote to Miss Cochran: “Didn’t they say we can do what we can after the trial is over. So let’s literally ring Heat and stuff and sell our story.”

Mr Greaney asked Miss Burton: “Do you regard your appearance in this case as a means to gain attention for yourself or money for yourself?”

She replied: “No.”

She also denied that she intended to sell her story after the case.

She added: “What I say to my friends and what I say to you are two different things, it’s just conversation. We were just joking between each other, there’s nothing in there to take seriously.”

Brian Stork, prosecuting, asked her: “When you made that witness statement did you make anything up?” to which she replied: “No”.

He added: “Have you made anything up today?” and she replied: “No.”

Dappy is charged alongside Kieran Vassell, 25, of Hammersmith, west London, and Kalonji Stewart, 32, of Harborne, Birmingham, who are each charged with affray.

Alfred Miller, 28, of Brentford, west London, has pleaded guilty to affray and his case was adjourned for sentence at the end of the trial.

The court heard that Stewart denies being part of the affray and had only stepped in to protect Dappy.

Vassell also denies his part in the affray.

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.