EIGHTIES POP star Shakin’ Stevens appeared in court in Ballymena, Co Antrim, yesterday charged with assaulting a photographer last year.
The 61-year-old singer, one of the most successful recording artists of the 1980s, whose real name is Michael Barrett, is accused of assaulting Hugo McNeice and smashing a camera lens during a concert at Ballymena’s Tullyglass Hotel.
Mr McNeice told District Judge Bernie Kelly he was to photograph a colleague interviewing Barrett before the concert on December 3rd last year, but it was called off.
The photographer said he later returned to the concert and after talking to a few friends and security staff he began “shooting a few frames” to get Barrett’s attention on stage.
Still singing, the artist danced towards Mr McNeice who claimed he thought the singer was about to give him “a nice tight shot”, but instead felt the microphone stand hit the lens of his camera which “jolted back into my head”.
The photographer claimed he was “shocked and embarrassed” by the incident and walked off.
“I was shocked that it happened, and embarrassed it happened in front of people I worked with in the area and who knew me,” said Mr McNeice. He added later that he “was in shock, I didn’t know what was going on, I just wanted to get out of there”.
Mr McNeice said it was only the next day while on another job that he realised his camera lens was damaged. He went to his solicitor to see how he could get the lens replaced, but was advised it was a police matter.
The photographer said he went to the police, not because of the assault, but because of the damage caused to the lens.
Under cross-examination from defence lawyer David Russell, the photographer denied that he had found the whole episode “at all amusing or the least bit funny”, maintaining he was “in shock”.
However, he did accept that in newspaper articles and in an interview with Radio Ulster's David Dunseath, it did appear as if the matter was being "joked about", with him allegedly saying he would like to play All Shook Up. Mr McNeice, who said he was "more amused" at the way the story had developed, claimed that on the night in question, "it wasn't amusing on that night".
The photographer also rejected the singer’s claim that at all times he was trying to use the stand to block him photographing. The case continues.