Strictly Come Dancing’s Peter Andre was yesterday accused of fabricating evidence, after he appeared as a witness in a contract dispute between his former TV producer Neville Hendricks and ITV2.
Hendricks was suing ITV2, after his company’s contract to produce TV shows featuring Peter Andre and Kerry Katona, was terminated in 2011, around the time his relationship with Pete’s manager Claire Powell broke down.
Father-of-three Pete told the court that Hendricks started sending him and Powell abusive messages on Twitter, and even alleged that Powell told him Henricks had sent her death threats.
However judge Justice Flaux concluded:
"I am quite satisfied that no death threats were ever made by Mr Hendricks against Miss Powell or against anyone else.
"That leaves two possible explanations of Mr Andre’s evidence: Either Miss Powell lied to him and told him there had been death threats when there had not, or his evidence is a complete fabrication.
"Obviously, I have thought long and hard before reaching this conclusion about a well-known entertainer who is in the public eye.
"But I have concluded that this evidence has been made up by Mr Andre.
"The evidence Mr Andre gave as to his reaction at the time to the tweets he saw was extremely exaggerated.”
Flaux ruled ITV2’s termination of Hendrick’s agreement a breach of contract, ordering the channel to pay him ‘substantial damages’.