N-Dubz Tulisa Testifies In Stabbing Case
N-Dubz The incident happened during Bailey's 24th birthday celebrations, when he, Contostavlos, bandmate Dappy and someone called Fifi returned to a shop where Bailey and Dappy had been involved in an argument earlier in the day.
Bailey's lawyers say that the group returned to the shop simply to buy more alcohol, but the prosecution allege they returned with revenge in mind, a plan that led to the victim, Mark Nagle, being stabbed in the stomach. Although Bailey is not accused of actually carrying out the stabbing, he is being tried under 'joint enterprise' laws, which view him as guilty simply for being involved in the incident which led to the stabbing.
Accounts on both sides differ wildly, although both agree that Bailey crashed his car during the altercation. After leaving the scene, Bailey handed himself in to police the next day, and was charged with wounding with intent and dangerous driving. Tulisa was also arrested but later released without charge.
Tulisa told the court that her group had driven to the shop in the early hours of 19 Sep last year, she in her car with Dappy and Fifi, followed by Bailey in his own car. She got there first and initially waited outside the shop for Bailey to arrive, but after hearing a commotion inside entered the store to see what was happening, finding herself confronted by a group of around twenty people, one of whom approached her threateningly.
She explained: "All I heard was: 'Where's the ting? Buss it', which I know from many 50 Cent songs means: 'Where's the gun? Shoot it'. When I heard that I thought: 'Oh my God, he's got a gun'. I turned my attention back to the car and ran back. There was one of them in particular. His body movement was almost like an animal, swaying from side to side. He picked up a dark object and put it down his trousers and he moved towards me".
As she hastily returned to her car, Bailey seems to have arrived and crashed his car after an object was thrown at it by one of the gang. Tulisa continued: "As I saw [Bailey's] car come back, the boys turned their attention to the vehicle. I saw one of them take an object and throw something at the vehicle. I saw the car flip out of control. It did a full tumble and ended up on its side. I thought: 'Oh my God, he's dead'. I was screaming hysterically. I screamed at Dappy and Fifi: 'Somebody help him'. They were just staring. I thought: 'If he is not dead, they are going to jump in and they are going to kill him'".
However, Bailey managed to climb out of the wreckage and, disorientated, began swinging a baseball bat, which he had in the car, to keep the approaching gang at bay. Tulisa continued: "Adam got out of the car and he had a bat in his hand and another hand on his head, looking around disorientated, swinging the bat. He was just swinging at anyone trying to get a metre space away from everybody to protect himself. I shouted at Dappy to wind down the windows and I screamed: 'Get in the car! Get in the car!'"
They escaped, seemingly before any stabbing took place, leaving Bailey's car behind, and Tulisa phoned N-Dubz's manager, Jonathon Shalit, to tell him what had happened. Asked why she had done this, instead of phoning the police, she said: "My life is run by other people. Every move I make is controlled by somebody else. Everything gets done for me and my job is just to work. The first time we found about any stabbing was when Adam got arrested. I feel like we were the ones who were attacked and an innocent man is standing in the dock".
The prosecution's account of the incident is somewhat different. They claim that Bailey returned to the shop with a number of other men with the specific intent of getting revenge on the people he'd argued with earlier. He'd crashed his car on arrival, but this had simply acted as more of an impressive entrance for the group, who had then attacked and stabbed Nagle.
Prosecution lawyer Simon Ward said: "Mark Nagle says he was in the shop on Finchley Road. He hears a bang outside. He steps outside the shop and sees the car overturned. He sees two men emerge from that car and he sees one of them holding a baseball bat. He sees another car pull up and two men emerge from that car - one of them has a knife. The four men started running towards him. He heard someone shouting: 'He was with them'. He is hit on the ankle with the baseball bat and a moment later while he is running away he is stabbed in the abdomen".
Ward added that the defence's claims that a separate group were responsible for the stabbing after Dappy and Bailey had already been involved in the earlier argument was "an extraordinary coincidence".
However, Bailey's lawyer, Richard Horwell, responded by saying that Nagel had not been involved in the original argument, so there was no link between the two altercations. He argued: "The men involved in the first incident, namely Dappy and Bailey, were not involved in the attack on Mr Nagle. And why Mr Nagle? No one suggests he had anything to do with either the first or second incident, so why on earth should Adam Bailey become involved in an attack against Mr Nagle? There is no motive at all".
