OT, but probably of interest

[squiggle-bat.livejournal.com]

Craig Charles: crack addict?

Bloody Hell, I opened up the paper today and was confronted with a full page spread on how Craig Charles was caught doing crack cocaine and reading porno mags while being driven around.

The original article is here: Though it's from the Mirror, a red top shock-tabloid with intent to find the most slanderous gossip about soap stars possible.

The exclusive snaps show Charles on a four-hour bender in the back of a car travelling from London to Manchester after he completed his stint as host of a funk show for the BBC digital radio channel Six Music.

Evening Standard (where I found it) says this:

The grainy images show the Liverpool-born actor making a makeshift crack pipe from empty beer cans. He becomes gradually more wild-eyed and dishevelled and eventually slumps down across the car seats.

And the BBC site says:

And the BBC said Charles would not host his radio show on 6 Music while managers talk to him about the claims.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. the poor guy, he's screwed himself over royally.

xposted to my journal

Comments

[laurenthemself]

It was Craig, and he was cleared of the rape charges. I don't know why, though.

[squiggle-bat.livejournal.com]

Piecing together from various articles over the Internet (accuracy not garunteed)

Craig, a friend, John Peploe, and a third man, Roger (who was never traced) were accused of taking cocaine, indecent assault and the rape of Craig's ex-girlfriend (Esther Harman) at her Clapham flat in July 1994. Craig denied the charges, saying he had visited her, but on the spur of the moment after celebrating his fiancee's birthday, to get a bacon butty. He spent 3 months in Wandsworth Jail, where he suffered abuse from the other inmates. He was denied bail until he was attacked (but not injured) by an inmate using a homemade knife. He stayed with Liverpulian relatives until the time of the trial as part of the bail conditions. Snippets from tabloids say he was greeted by his girlfriend and taken off in a chaffeur driven limo. The two week trial was held on Feb 1995. They were cleared as no forensic evidence had been submitted for the rape, though he admitted to taking the cocaine she offered him. The jury took only 90 minutes to find him not guilty.

This website has newspaper articles about the trial itself, including one Craig wrote himself in the Guardian (5th down):
http://www.eskimo.com/~onan/tardis/SotRT_News_012.html

Here's the others I looked at.
http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/5849/rd/craigc.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3055859.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/08/99/edinburgh_festival_99/411618.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Charles
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/british-comedy/general-faq/part3/
http://www.eskimo.com/~onan/tardis/SotRT_News_004.html

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

There's a bad joke here, but in deference to the gravity of the thread, I'm just going to swallow it. I will say that I'm damned if I'm going to let any of this ruin slash and enjoyment therefrom, however.

[nessaancalime.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!
No reason why it should. This is about the fandom, we can not expect everyone involved in it to be perfect, especially since nobody is perfect. (and who has not made a mistake in their life?)

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

*doesn't even want to think about the articles that would appear if self were being followed by yellow journalists*