Celebrity drug dealers sold video to press

A couple plotted to secretly film celebrities, including singer Amy Winehouse, taking drugs so they could sell footage to newspapers, a court heard today.

Charges against Johnny Blagrove, 34, and 22-year-old girlfriend Cara Burton were triggered after a video emerged of Winehouse apparently smoking a crack pipe during a party at her home.

The pair sold the footage to The Sun newspaper but it was later passed to police, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

They were charged with offering to supply drugs, and will be sentenced later today.

The Rehab and Black To Black singer, seen snorting a substance from a card in the grainy footage, was arrested in connection with the case in May.

Andrew Henley, representing Blagrove, said: "Amy Winehouse was interviewed, and admitted she had taken drugs, believed to be crack cocaine and MDMA. But she questioned what they were because they had no effect on her."

No charges were brought against Winehouse, because it could not be proved that the substances she was seen taking were illicit drugs, the court heard.

Judge Tudor Owen viewed the footage taken by Blagrove, which also shows a blonde Winehouse openly discussing drugs.

He said: "You see Ms Winehouse given something, snorting it, and then the obvious reaction.

"Her voice changes, from how it has been to a rather curiously high-pitched voice.

"And the Crown says it should not find it was a prohibited drug?"

The judge asked if he could draw a "reasonable inference" from the video, but Paul Raudnitz, prosecuting, told him there was no evidence to prove what the substance was.

The video shows Blagrove boasting to others at the party: "I've got coke. Proper wicked coke. Banging coke."

He denies supplying drugs to Winehouse, telling a female friend: "To Amy? No.

"I'm not going to sell anything to Amy. She's had enough as it is."

There is no evidence Blagrove or Burton did supply any drugs to the singer, the court was told.

Winehouse appears to be slurring her speech in sections of the video, taken in the early hours of January 18 this year, and is heard singing incoherently.

The final scene shown to the court sees Blagrove laughing to himself after telling his reflection in a bathroom mirror: "You have succeeded. You have done it.

"You are going places. It's taken a while, but I've finally got what I want."

Burton arranged to sell the video to a journalist from The Sun, for which she received £50,000. She planned to buy a house with Blagrove with the profits, but her bank account has been frozen, the court heard.

Judge Owen commented: "It appears the defendants' motive was to make money by selling the story. £50,000 is a lot of money."

Police who later searched Blagrove and Burton's home in Dalston, east London, following their arrest, found a "hit list" of celebrities they intended to target.

Mr Raudnitz said: "It would appear the defendants proposed filming other people taking drugs for the purpose of selling it to the newspapers."

Officers also seized video equipment and a notebook headed "rules", detailing how they would sell their footage to newspapers.

A further tape was also found, not filmed at Winehouse's home, which showed Burton offering to supply drugs to a friend.

Burton, who obtained straight A grades in her A-levels at a Catholic high school in her home town of Scunthorpe, admitted two counts of offering to supply Class B drugs, amphetamine.

Blagrove has admitted two counts of offering to supply Class A drugs - cocaine and MDMA - and one of offering to supply Class B drugs, amphetamine.