Former boy band singer given 56 days in prison

The former East 17 singer Brian Harvey was jailed for 56 days yesterday after breaching an injunction taken out by his estranged wife. Harvey, 27, from Walthamstow, east London, was jailed at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The star was arrested on Thursday after attending Loughton police station in Essex by appointment for breaking the non-molestation order taken out by his estranged wife, Natasha Goldman, 25.

The order was made after a fierce row at the estranged couple's former home last year in which the police were called.

Harvey was attacked with a machete outside a nightclub shortly before the incident. He had been talking to two women at the Nottingham club The Works when a gang of young men set upon him. He was slashed around the head with the blade and treated at hospital.

Harvey was sacked by East 17 after telling an interviewer that he had taken ecstasy, but was reinstated as the band relaunched as E17. During that interview with Independent Radio News, he was asked how many ecstasy pills he had taken in a single night. Harvey replied that he had once taken 12. He made the admission worse by adding: "If you bang one, you go out, you have a good night."

Harvey recently launched a comeback as a solo artist.