The Grillo case (AKA Nigella & Saatchi)

[BerylStreep]

So the last thread on the Grillo case is full.

I have taken the liberty of starting a new one here for people's thoughts as the case unfolds.

Well he presumably doesn't care about the money but was happy to have the wife he "adored" slaughtered by the media.

Does anyone know how the Grillos able to afford the PR and Defence team?

Well I think they had access to a credit card with quite a high limit......

catherine

But that is a seriously good question. Now, who do we know who has deep pockets who wants to ruin Nigella..?

I'm surprised no one has connected the dots between buying up the books to move the title up the list and the shady but well known art market practice of window dressing, and fixing an artificial value for works of art from unknown artists by fake bids from cartels at auctions. That could be the license that prints the money.

"Now, who do we know who has deep pockets who wants to ruin Nigella..?"

Well, this is the thing, edam. If Saatchi succeeded in destroying Nigella's reputation, then that would lend support to the Grillos' case - but he was the one who reported the Grillos to the police in the first place and then spoke as a prosecution witness. If he was simultaneously funding the Grillos' legal case and acting as a prosecution witness, wouldn't that be illegal? Wasting police time or something? (I have no idea by the way if it is or isn't, but it feels as if it ought to be.)

I see in this morning's Guardian that the Met are now going to review the drugs admissions.

I wonder are they also going to examine the transcripts for perjury?

Hard to know if this is a good thing for Nigella - if she was telling the truth about having partaken on only a handful of occasions, then you would hope that MPS would establish that and blow the allegations of twice weekly coke snorting out of the water. The use around the time of John Diamond's death would be beyond the statute of limitations, and even if there is sufficient evidence to meet the evidential test, I am not entirely convinced that CPS would view it as meeting the public interest test for them to proceed with a prosecution.

And this article seems to suggest that the Grillo sisters had hired Hillgrove PR.

Very murky.

Aiya that is an interesting point you raise about the books and the art world.

Would the CPS ordinarily prosecute someone for infrequent, long-ago possession?

People seem so keen on the idea that Nigella is being treated as a special case and being let off because she's rich and famous, when I wonder whether to prosecute her would be singling her out for special treatment.

Really interesting

The front page of the Sun on Sunday is an interview with the Grillos which claims she was a "spaced out zombie". I think they may be getting a bit cocky now...

They can though. I doubt she'll sue. It just wouldn't be worth it.

You see, I think I would sue. The Grillos said in court they had never seen her taking drugs, their evidence seemed fairly far-fetched and a good barrister from Carter-Ruck or Schillings would give them a real going over. It is up to the libeller to prove their claims in English libel law rather than for the slandered person to prove their innocence.

The article is truly scraping the barrel, what vile scum they are. Little substance to their claims, gloating pictures. Didn't take them long to get over their panic attacks and cash in.

Well, they have got a PR firm to pay for .

I cant see why the Grillos sisters would sing like canaries if it wasnt true.

They cannot want another legal case.

They'll be betting on Nigella just wanting it all to end. If she sues it just makes more headlines.

I'd personally just ignore it and wait for it to pass.

If it happened to me lala my first furious thought would be to go to court too.

But with my detached head on, I'd advise her to forget it.

She'd be looking a year of stress preparing for the case, two weeks of humiliating revelations about a life, that though richer than mine, is probably reasonably ordinary, and a massive bill with no guarantee of success.

She seems to have enough money to throw away. But I don't think it's a fair exchange. People already think well of her or badly and going to court is very unlikely to change their views.

I imagine someone like Saatchi would enjoy the process. But then, as we've discovered, he is a singular kind of person,

In one of the articles linked it said that Random House are going to re-issue all her books with new covers so I think her career will be fine.

The Grillos will have their moment of infamy and then be forgotten.

Well, I'm Italian so acting before I think it through properly comes naturally to me . It seems to be something I have in common with the Grillo sisters who, according to their father are planning to sue Saatchi and Lawson for defamation (apologies - it's a Daily Mail link).

golddigger it's not about the Grillos; it's about The Sun and whether they think Nigella is likely to sue vs the circulation boost.

I'm a journalist. People have told me things that I absolutely believed that we've spiked because the person was highly litigious and likely to be believed by a trusting libel jury - like, er, who was he? Oh yeah, that Jimmy Savile person.

The Sun are gambling as much on whether she's up for the fight I detailed above, as on whether the Grillos will be convincing in the witness box. Newspapers make that kind of judgement all the time.

And who except for a strict teetotaller who's never taken prescription drugs hasn't been in such a subjective state as 'spaced out'?

'Spaced out' is the headline. I was spaced out once. The hospital had given me morphine after an operation. You may find on combing the story that's the kind of thing they're talking about. It would be foolish to argue with that.

But I haven't read the story so maybe they have video evidence and hair strand tests.

lalalonglegs you don't have to be Italian to get the red mist. I have it too. I think it's noble even at the same time I'm thinking it's not such a good idea.

As for the Grillos sueing for defamation. Good luck with that now you don't have access to Saatchi's American Express Black Card.

What bit of Italy do you come from? I have northern Italian friends (I have southern ones too) but the northern ones have said: 'Well, they're from Calabria, aren't they?' as if that's an explanation.

Apologies if that's insulting. I truly don't mean it that way. It's like some English people insulting people from Liverpool. Or Essex, which is where I'm from. Essex people don't get it as bad as Scousers, btw.

Yes - we are northerners and I am sure there will be much eye-rolling round the Christmas dinner table about the Grillos' roots ("Well what can you expect? Nothing good has ever come out of Calabria except tomatoes?" was one of my cousin's explanations for another Calabrian ne'er-do'well .)

goldigger I was very interested to read about your explanation of how newspapers think. I've been following this Grillo strand on mumsnet for two days, and there are many points raised here, which make far more sense to me, than whats in the newspaper. So why haven't some of these points, like the inconsistencies in the defendants; statements been investigated by the newspapers?