Former U2 stylist Lola Cashman has claimed she was "frozen out" of her job as a freelance fashion stylist when letters were sent on behalf of the band to UK auctioneers Christie's saying certain items belonged to U2 and were not hers to sell.
Ms Cashman was giving evidence on the third and final day of her appeal against a Circuit Court order that she hand back to U2 a number of items, including a pair of trousers, a Stetson hat and earrings. The hearing before Mr Justice Michael Peart concluded yesterday and judgment was reserved to a later date.
She said the items - including a stetson and trousers worn by members of the band - were gifts and were taken with Bono's consent.
"I clearly know what belongs to me and what does not," she said.
Ms Cashman strongly denied a suggestion by Paul Sreenan SC, for U2, that she had "reinvented" in her mind that the items were gifts or that she kept them because of "a sense of grievance".
There were "a lot of things" which she had decided to leave out of her book Inside the Zoo - U2, she said, "like who was sleeping with who".
"I wanted to keep it simple and concentrate on my work with the band," she said. Denying a suggestion that she had exaggerated her role with the band, she said: "I had a lot of input into the band."
Ms Cashman said her professional reputation, which gave her an annual income of some £50,000 (€74,000) according to documents submitted to the London High Court, suffered after she tried to sell the items. She put the items up for sale while she was taking a sabbatical in Australia, but the letters to Christie's "made it impossible to work in my industry".
Earlier, John Rogers SC, for Ms Cashman, asked her whether there was "anything sensitive or compromising" for any person in 200 photographs of the Joshua Tree tour and band in her possession.
Replying there was "not in a general sense", she said she was, however, sure the band would not like the pictures "to be out". There were photos of Bono getting changed and on the tour bus , "pictures like that".
She said she was allowed to take the pictures. "We are all frolicking about in party scenes." The photos were of social occasions during the tour and after gigs, she had had them for 20 years and had never put them up for sale and had not put them in her book about the band. "It is not what I wanted to do," she said.
Ms Cashman said she was upset and found "incredibly hurtful" the suggestion she had obtained things dishonestly. She had put items up for sale at Christies because she was"financially challenged" and trying to raise "a bit of cash".
Asked what she thought of U2 manager's Paul McGuinness evidence that she was a "traitor", she said it was "absolutely and incredibly hurtful and absolutely ridiculous".
"I am trying to be candid in not revealing what went on in a tour. I am not a traitor, I am trying to defend myself against the allegations that I have an Aladdin's cave of goods."