Dizzee Rascal to be sentenced for assaulting ex-fiancee
Dizzee Rascal will appear at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning to be sentenced for assault.
Dizzee Rascal (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Dizzee Rascal is to appear in court to be sentenced for assaulting his ex-fiancee during a “chaotic” row over money and contact with their children.
The grime artist, 37, whose real name is Dylan Mills, was found guilty of attacking Cassandra Jones after a trial in March, with a judge concluding he had been “abusive and aggressive”.
He is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning for the sentencing hearing.
Grime artist Dizzee Rascal, real name Dylan Mills, was found guilty of assaulting his ex-fiancee (James Manning/PA)
During the trial, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court heard he had pressed his forehead against hers before pushing her to the ground during the incident at a residential property in Streatham, south London, on June 8 last year.
The musician, behind chart-topping singles Bonkers and Dance Wiv Me, was “frustrated” over custody arrangements and the pair had an argument when he dropped off their daughter at the property, the court heard.
Mills, who had two children with Ms Jones before they split up in February 2021, was said to have “barged” into the home, banged his head on a fridge three times while holding his son and began “screaming and shouting” at Ms Jones and her mother Dawn Kirk.
The court heard how Ms Jones began filming him but he took her phone from her and then took Ms Kirk’s phone.
The shouting became so loud that it alerted two neighbours and police were called, a judge was told.
The court heard how when they arrived, Mills told officers “I’m the aggressor”, but later gave a prepared statement in a police interview, denying the allegations and claimed he had been assaulted by Ms Jones.
Following the guilty verdict, Mills smashed a photographer’s camera outside court after knocking it from their hands and hurling it across the road.
Police initially said they were investigating but no charges were brought.
Ms Jones said the verdict showed “wealth and status cannot be used to silence women”.
Mills released his debut album, Boy In Da Corner, in 2003.
His seventh studio album E3 AF, which refers to his east London postcode and African heritage, is due out on October 30.
He was made an MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020, and performed at festivals in August including Live At Lydiard in Swindon and Boardmasters in Cornwall.
Today's Headlines
LATEST | Second arrest amid Ballymena search for ‘high-risk’ Chloe Mitchell
'givin' it socks' | Niall Horan’s hilarious lesson on how to be Irish has US TV audiences in stitches
crashed out | Nearly half of all women who took Garda fitness test last year failed
speed freak | Video clip of e-bike scooter goon speeding along Dublin’s M50 motorway goes viral
rank attack | Drunken Irish tourist fined €20k for breaking taxi driver’s ribs in Canary Island assault
MORNING SAGA | Deirdre Reynolds: ‘What exactly was Holly Willoughby expected to do about Phil’s affair’
'clear message' | Thousands of people protest housing crisis in ‘Raise the Roof’ rally in Cork
unresponsive | 'Unabomber’ Theodore 'Ted' Kaczynski dies in prison aged 81
life of crime | Mum of Hutch relative Christopher Coakley made ‘great efforts’ to keep him out of trouble
tangled web | David Haye's girlfriend Sian Osborne takes new swipe at Una Healy in wake of ‘throuple’