Liam Gallagher’s son, Ringo Starr’s grandson and a friend have been labelled ‘entitled’ by a judge after pleading not guilty to assault.
Gene Gallagher, 20, son of Oasis star Liam, as well as Beatles’ drummer Ringo’s grandson Sonny Starkey, 21, and model Noah Ponte, 21, are accused of fighting in a Tesco Express store in Hampstead, North London in May 2019.
The trio faced court this week, where all three pleaded not guilty to charges of affray and assault by beating, while Gallagher and Ponte are also accused of racially aggravated assault, with Ponte having a further charge of theft.
Judge Joanna Greenberg told the trio at Wood Green Crown Court that they were ‘entitled’, adding that they were ‘young men thinking they can get what they want by misbehaving.’
The altercation had occurred in a Tesco store in Hampstead, London, shortly before midnight on May 17, 2019, when shop staff tried to stop Ponte leaving with a £1.70 can of gin and tonic, which he was unable to buy as it was outside of the hours they were licensed to sell alcohol.
The court heard that Ponte had paid for nuts of the same value, which he left in the shop, in an attempt to get around the licensing restriction, he told the court.
Staff were alleged to have started ‘grabbing’ Ponte before the altercation, in which prosecutors said Starkey and Gallagher threw ‘kicks and punches’ at one worker, who then managed to get Starkey in a headlock for ‘some minutes’.
Their trial was due to start on Wednesday, but prosecutors decided to bring no evidence as new evidence had come to light which showed there was a ‘strong case’ Starkey was acting in self-defence and Gallagher was defending him, the court heard.
Ponte was found not guilty of theft by the jury after 31 minutes of deliberation.
CCTV footage showed a member of staff ‘advancing’ towards Starkey before Starkey fell out of view, apparently to the ground, while one witness described the member of staff as the ‘aggressor’ to the court.
A statement from the security guard alleged that while the trio ‘started it’, staff did not allow him to handle them.
He said in a statement: ‘They came in and the situation went from a situation with me to a fight with all the staff. In my opinion both sides could have handled this situation better.’
Concluding the hearing, Judge Greenberg told Gallagher and Starkey: ‘Your behaviour on this occasion when you entered the Tesco store was, in my view, completely out of order.
‘It’s hard enough when people running a late-night store encounter entitled young men thinking they can get what they want by misbehaving, and that’s what you did.’
The judge concluded that Ponte’s actions ‘invited trouble’ and were the ‘catalyst’ for the events which occurred, and recorded not guilty pleas in relation to Gallagher and Starkey, and bound over all three defendants – meaning they have promised to ‘keep the peace and be of good behaviour’ for 12 months or pay £500.
A reporting restriction, which had been in place until the end of Ponte’s trial on Friday, was also lifted by the judge.
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