Lady Leshurr says her 'career is ruined' as she broke her silence after being found not guilty of assaulting her ex girlfriend.
The rapper was accused of allegedly attacking her ex-girlfriend, Sidnee Hussein, before biting her new partner, Chante Boyea. She was denied two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over an alleged attack on her ex-girlfriend and her new partner during an altercation in London last year.
The former Dancing On Ice contestant, birth name Melesha O'Garro, denied two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was later found not guilty after a trial. Following the verdict, Lady Leshurr took to her social media to reveal how she had been impacted by the case.
Alongside a video of herself, she said: "For the past year I’ve been battling a court case from people that accused me of stalking, harassing, and biting them but I was the victim.
"I was attacked and bitten by a dog and made out to be the aggressor. For a whole year people have deserted me, dropped me from deals, and didn’t want to work with me anymore. For a whole year I have had no income. Today has been judgement day. I’m shaking whilst I write this.
Lady Leshurr bit ex's new girlfriend before launching attack on ex, court hears"My career has been ruined regardless no matter the outcome, but at least I have a clean record and can FINALLY get on with my life. #JUSTICEISSERVED #NOTGUILTY CARMENSSPIRIT #GODISGREAT." She also thanked "everyone who believed" in her and added: "I am not the person the media has tried to make me out to be."
At the start of the trial earlier this month, prosecutor Polly Dyer said in her opening statement: "In a nutshell, this is a case where in the early hours of the morning, after a night out, the defendants went and loitered outside one of their ex-girlfriend’s houses, before going on to attack the ex-girlfriend’s then new partner, followed by the ex-girlfriend.
"It was undeniably a relatively quick and dynamic incident, but the key issue you may think is who were the aggressors?" It's claimed that Boyea had left the home of Sidnee before a car, appearing to be carrying two distressed women flagged her down before they allegedly "started shouting at her".
Dyer added: "Ms O'Garro came towards Ms Boyea and as she did so Ms Boyea put out her left hand to protect herself. As she did that the first defendant (O’Garro) bit her on the hand. I anticipate that Ms Boyea will also describe being punched by Ms O’Garro." The court heard how O'Garro later kicked Hussein's dog, which had escaped when Sidnee had rushed to defend her girlfriend while "shouting at her, calling her names".
O’Garro told police she was "bitten by the dog as Ms Boyea was directing it to get her" and that "she was punched in the head and stamped on by Ms Boyea", Ms Dyer said. Ms Dyer added: "She could not recall if she bit Ms Boyea but she would not do anything like that and did not think she would have been able to in any event."
The defendants’ case was that they were the ones who were first attacked and that Ms Boyea used her Belgian Malinois dog Toby as a “weapon” against O’Garro. During her evidence O’Garro, who denied biting or trying to bite Ms Boyea, said she believes the video was taken after the altercation because she is not wearing one of her trademark wigs, which she uses “95% of the time”.
She told the court: “Looking at the video, I’m just trying to get her off. She (Ms Boyea) said that I’m flailing my arms around. None of it connected. I am trying to get them off and there is a dog around.” She suggested her mouth could be open in the video because her chin may have been hit. O’Garro said the dog was being directed to specific places where it could bite her.
She said: “While I was on the floor she was hitting me. She was saying ‘get her’ and that is where the dog was going.” O’Garro added “my main concern was keeping the dog away from my face” and throughout the brawl all she wanted to do was escape. She said: “I did not care that she was hitting me. It was the dog at the time. I just wanted to get up and get away – that was it.”
O’Garro denied she was having to be restrained because she had become angry. She said: “I’m clearly defending myself. If you put that online everyone would think I’m attacking her but if you look there’s still a dog attacking me.” Asked by the prosecution why Ms Boyea is shouting for help, O’Garro replied: “So that she has evidence that she is being attacked. She made this Snapchat evidence before she called the police – that’s my analysis of that.”
O’Garro said she did not say anything while she was on the floor “in pain” adding: “I just wanted it to end, I had no energy, I did not scream or shout, I literally just took it.”
Rapper Lady Leshurr found not guilty of attacking ex-girlfriend's partnerKnown professionally as Lady Leshurr, Ms O'Garro is a MOBO Award winner and has achieved critical acclaim for her freestyle raps. Away from music, she appeared on The Celebrity Circle in 2021, reached the semi-final of the 13th series of Dancing On Ice in 2021 and in April and August 2022, appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV show Loose Women.