Bugzy Malone: Grime star who broke men's jaws found not guilty

Grime star Bugzy Malone has been cleared of unlawfully punching two men.

The rapper broke both the men's jaws with single blows after his partner told him three men had broken into their home on 9 September 2018.

The 30-year-old, whose real name is Aaron Davies, told Manchester Crown Court he drove to the house in Ramsbottom, near Bury, braced for a "volatile situation".

He was found not guilty of two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The Manchester-born rapper, who is now based in London, told the court he feared for the safety of his then girlfriend and his mother, who were inside the property.

'Reflex'

The jury was told a friend also called him to say the house was "being done over".

He said as he approached the property, he saw his friend with two men in "what was clearly a confrontation".

He told the court he ran over and hit out with a "reflex" punch at one of the men and struck the other after he made a "sharp movement" in his direction with clenched fists.

The prosecution argued he did not act in self-defence and had angrily struck out after wrongly believing the men were the intruders.

Jurors took less than four hours to clear him of both counts of unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm.

'Pudding throwing festival'

The court heard the "unlikely" backdrop to the events was the town's annual black pudding-throwing festival.

A "terrified" teenage girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, rang her parents at the festival, asking them to pick her up from nearby Nuttall Park after saying she and her friends had been followed by Malone who had driven his car in an "intimidating manner".

A young male in their group had earlier climbed on to a wall at Malone's house and peered over the front gates and shouted the musician's name.

Her father decided to visit Malone and was joined by a family friend and the boy's father.

The boy's father threw a brick at the gates before forcing his way into the courtyard of the property, and the other two men came across Malone returning home as they walked away.

The jury heard the boy's father was later prosecuted and convicted of causing criminal damage.

Malone, who starred in Guy Ritchie's 2019 film The Gentlemen, denied chasing the youngsters in his car and said his intention was to "motivate them" to stay away from his property which he had just moved into.

Speaking outside court, the rapper's solicitor Lachlan Nisbet said he had been "faced with distraught family members" and "did no more than the minimum necessary to defend himself and to secure the safety of his home."

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