To think that in the Lawson/Saatchi/Grillo Case...

[friday16]

...that if you're richer than the dreams of avarice, and your assistants who know about your and your wife's drug use have been taking the piss financially, your best bet would be to pay them off quietly and put the loss down to (easily affordable) experience, because any other path is going to make you look very foolish?

lots of people in the media took coke and loads still do. i don't think it's the crime of the century and really do feel bad for nigella. she hopefully will come out of this with her dignity intact and her press release spoke volumes.

you have to be pretty naive to not realise that coke use is prevalent in todays society.

meh i think sticking shite up your nose is unacceptable for anybody but I am sure Nigella wont suffer her career will be fine.

Well the article Mignonette posted by Victoria Coren sums up the background about Nigellas drug use beautifully. She is not just a rich spoilt junkie putting shite up her nose. She joined her dying husband in using cocaine as escapism. And Saatchi is a nasty piece of shit for bringing it up to try to ruin her chances in America. He doesn't love her and he never did. He controlled her and couldn't tell the difference because he's a psycopath

Money doesn't equal happiness. She's just a normal woman, with the same hopes fears and worries as the rest of us. She has admitted to taking drugs when her husband was dying (Victoria Coren admitted to taking coke with John Diamond, should we prosecute her too?) and during an abusive relationship with the man who is now dragging her name through the mud.

There are worse crimes.

Such as getting spend happy with money that isn't yours, and then telling the world your boss was a druggie because they dared take you to court.

i think the US will be more open to her after this and wouldn't blame her if she shipped out. i can't understand why PAs would think it was okay to use their employees ccards so willingly in the first place. saatchi has always come across as a nasty bit of work.

Just to be clear on what the jury had to decide it was whether the prosecution had provided them with sufficient evidence that they believed, beyond reasonable doubt, that the sisters were guilty of fraud. It's a pretty high bar. The defendants presented the jury with an alternative explanation of why they had been allowed to spend the money, and the jury clearly felt that the prosecution's evidence was not so compelling that the defence didn't create reasonable doubt. The jury was out for a long time (9 hours) and had to be directed that they could reach a majority verdict before they acquitted the defendants, so clearly at least some of the jurors considered that the prosecution may have proved the case.

"She joined her dying husband in using cocaine as escapism"

Well she would say that, wouldn't she.....Anyone within sniffing distance of the chatterati will have a different view.

Irrelevant really, as it all depends on what her worshipping public think.

Yes, YANBU. That is probably exactly what is going on. I feel really sorry for her. Saatchi is a cunt and their public marital breakdown, court case etc is an embarrassment and completely undgnified. He should be ashamed of himself.

But i do not approve of her discussing John Diamonds drug use. That is disrespectful. She should also be ashamed of herself for this.

I don't know why her alleged drug use is a defense - either she didn't have a habit and it was straight theft or they blackmailed her to keep shtum so a crime either way.

either she didn't have a habit and it was straight theft

Except if she handed over a credit card and said "spend what you like" without anything in writing, it's not theft or fraud. Which it would appear is the case.

or they blackmailed her to keep shtum so a crime either way.

Odd that they weren't charged with that, really, wouldn't you say?

The whole thing is bizarre, it seems ridiculous that all this shit about nigella's private life would have taken up so much of the evidence and court time.

I recon anyone who says 'I took coke x amount f times' is probably lying (knowing the people I know who do coke) but what happened between nigella and these women sounds very much like sme kind of blackmail.

The law is an Ass.

I can't see how its disrespectful. He was her husband, she watched him die and she was left with two children. It was as much her experience as it was his.

Part of the defence seems to have been about how credible a witness nigella was. Hence all the drug stuff being brought up.

I think that the lines were so blurred, spending wise, even as far as the accountants trying to work out what was what, that the sisters couldnt really have been found guilty.

I am concerned about how she is going to cope now, one way and another.

One thing was never explained though,or if it was, I managed to miss it.

How did what was presumably a private e mail from Saatchi to Nigella suddenly become part of the court case?

I would have found them not guilty if I was on the jury.

Saatchi and Lawson made a mockery of the court process to their own ends. More Saatchi than Lawson IMHO but they turned this from being a fraud case in to being a soap opera.

Saatchi said one thing in an e-mail and another in court. How credible a witness is that?

Blackmail has been mentioned but surely the flip side might be bribery. The jury have found not guilty of fraud so presumably the accusation against the sisters of blackmail didn't hold water, so does that not make it more likely that they were highly paid just to be kept quiet, albeit an unspoken agreement?

Saatchi is cruel enough to use this as a way of washing his dirty linen in public, & crucify his ex. His motives (IMHO) were less about justice than revenge.

Spermysextowel, that is exactly what I have been thinking too. At least, that is what it is now going to look like. Probably partly why Nigella is so concerned.

The whole thing is just weird. She is a very intelligent woman, & whilst I know that domestic violence knows no boundaries I can't believe that if he was that awful she didn't have options. Am disappointed with her 'juggling work/family' spiel now too. Five PAs would mean that I could knock up something yummy every night whilst looking unflustered. I think I'll stick to Delia in future.

'Your and your wife's drug use'

OP Where was it ever suggested that Saatchi took drugs?

Apart from Nigella's admission of limited drug use, there was no independent evidence at all that she was a habitual user. Nigella was not allowed to produce evidence from her GP to dispute their claims, because she was only a witness. It was all allegations by the defence to try to explain why she would overlook misuse of the credit cards. And even they could not come up with a specific conversation in which this bargain was made clear. It was all supposition on their part.

Extraordinary verdict, given there were numerous occasions on the credit card statements when the expenditure was clearly for the Grillos' personal use.

Celebs dont normally say that what we see them doing, is virtually all they do.
I used to naively wonder how some celeb mums managed to spend so many hours exercising. But that was all part of their job. They certainly dont wash the windows!

Dave Cameron admits smoking cannabis link here

There's no question that they used the cards to buy things for themselves, it's just whether they were permitted to do so. Does anyone know if Ms Lawson could now put forward a slander case against her former employees?

Working-class people taking drugs are low life scum according to some people on here. When Nigella takes drugs she's some sort of tragic hero. The cult of celebrity in the UK is sickening.