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A jury trying Pop Idol Will Young’s twin brother
today retired to consider its verdict.
Rupert Young, 25, is accused of an unprovoked street
attack on his victim after a night out.
Young and two other friends used the victim “like a
punch bag”, it is alleged.
Chef Kawa Ghareeb, 35, an Iraqi Kurd, claimed he was
beaten up by the three while walking home from a
night out in central London in May last year.
Stephen Brassington, representing Young, a TV
company floor manager, told the jurors before they
retired that the victim was lying to get money from
newspapers on the back of the defendant’s famous
brother.
Ghareeb was accused of being a “gold digger” after
selling his story to a tabloid, London’s Middlesex
Guildhall Crown Court heard.
Mr Brassington said the defendant was guilty of
being a “drunk, arrogant, young fool” but not of the
assault.
Summing up Judge Timothy Lawrence told the jury that
the case was simply a matter of who you believed –
either the prosecution and that Ghareeb was
assaulted for no reason or the defence and that the
victim “gratuitously” attacked three strong young
men.
Young, from Hungerford, Berkshire, along with
co-accused David Kennedy, 26, and Anis Shlewet, 25,
both from London, all deny one charge of causing
actual bodily harm to Mr Ghareeb.
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