Tulisa Contostavlos has claimed a police officer made obscene gestures towards her while she was on trial for a drugs sting.
In 2013, the singer was charged with being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, with her trial being held the following year at Southwark Crown Court.
Detailing the ordeal in her upcoming book, Judgement, she penned: she ‘felt like an animal in a cage, for everyone’s entertainment.’
Reflecting on the time in a chat with Cosmopolitan, the magazine noted: ‘A police officer even mouthed b***job signals at her, while she sat in the dock.’
The impact of the trial also left Tulisa with PTSD, with the singer noting that if she had to go through all the coverage of her trial she would ‘have a nervous breakdown.’
She explained: ‘There was, an actual, very serious [suicide] attempt. There was also this moment of real depression where I was driving in my car, hysterically crying, and there was so much trauma that I had an out of body experience.
‘It was like my brain was going so nuts that I had to physically detach the two.’
Tulisa Contostavlos (pictured last month) has claimed a police officer made obscene gestures towards her while she was on trial for a drugs sting
In 2013, the singer was charged with being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, with her trial being held the following year at Southwark Crown Court (pictured)
A Met Police spokesperson told Daily Mail: ‘We are unaware of this allegation from 2016, which has not been reported to us.
‘We would encourage the complainant to make a report so we can investigate.’
Following the trial, Tulisa spent more than a decade out of the public eye after it was ruled the infamous Fake Sheikh had trapped her in the drug sting.
Mazher Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheik, a former journalist for the Sun on Sunday was jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice after he tricked Tulisa into buying cocaine for him while he posed as a film producer.
Since she stood on the steps of Southwark Crown Court in 2014 vindicated and condemned the ‘horrific entrapment’ from Mahmood, Tulisa has remained largely out of the spotlight, save an N-Dubz tour in 2022.
She made her career comeback last year with a stint on I’m A Celebrity, in which she opened up about the lasting impact of the trial.
Tulisa explained: ‘I lost all my endorsements… my life fell apart.’
Ahead of appearing in the Jungle, she said: ‘There’s nothing worse in that jungle than what happened in 2013.’
Mazher Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheik, a former journalist for the Sun on Sunday was jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice after he tricked Tulisa into buying cocaine for him while he posed as a film producer
She said: ‘Every time I think, you know, this is going to be hard, I think I’ve done it, I can do it.
‘And then I just got to the point, well, going on television again is the most uncomfortable situation I could possibly put myself in.
‘And I feel like I’ve been on this kind of healing cycle for the past 11 years, really, since all the crap, since X Factor, since the trial.
‘And this, for me, would complete the cycle, because it’s the last thing on the list is this overwhelming fear that I have or have had. I’m not feeling it today, but overall, of this fear of being on especially TV.’
The case was brought against Mahmood after Tulisa was accused of arranging for him to be sold £800 of cocaine by one of her contacts following an elaborate sting for the Sun on Sunday newspaper in May 2013.
The trial had heard that ‘King of the Sting’ Mahmood and his driver, Alan Smith conspired to suppress evidence in the N-Dubz star’s trial, which was thrown out at Southwark Crown Court in July 2014.
During a meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel in London, Mahmood posed as a film producer and plied the popstar with alcohol as they discussed an acting role alongside Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.
As Smith drove the former X Factor judge home to Hertfordshire, she allegedly spoke about a family member who had a drug problem.
She made her career comeback last year with a stint on I’m A Celebrity, in which she opened up about the lasting impact of the trial, saying her life ‘fell apart’
When he was interviewed by police about the journey more than a year later, Smith, of Dereham, Norfolk, recalled the conversation.
But a day later, after speaking to Mahmood and emailing his draft statement, the singer’s anti-drugs comments were removed, the court heard.
At a pre-trial hearing, Mahmood denied being an ‘agent provocateur’ or that he discussed the drugs conversation with Smith.
But when he was questioned at length in the trial, Mahmood appeared to concede he had talked to Smith about what Miss Contostavlos said about drugs in the car. The case was subsequently thrown out.
The following 10 years were ‘hell’ for Tulisa who had an entire future ahead of her ruined by the sting.
Speaking about the ordeal, the I Need You singer said: ‘Honestly, I can’t tell you.
‘Sure, at times it’s been horrific for me at moments in the past 10 years, but that’s just not the perspective that I have now. I take it all as knowledge.’
‘Knowledge Is power and ultimately a blessing because I wouldn’t be where I am without it, I wouldn’t change a thing.
‘I don’t think I would have been able to do this unless I was feeling in such a strong content place. So it could only have been now. It couldn’t have been before.’
