Dizzee Rascal avoids jail over assault on ex-fiancee

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Rapper Dizzee Rascal has avoided a prison sentence for assaulting his ex-fiancee during a “chaotic” row over money and contact with their children.

The 37-year-old grime artist, whose real name is Dylan Mills, was handed a community order with a 24-week curfew and a 12-month restraining order at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Before his court appearance, the rapper gave a thumbs up to photographers and donned a red cap, a casual grey jacket, black jeans and trainers.

He was found guilty of attacking Cassandra Jones after a trial in March, with a judge concluding he had been “abusive and aggressive”.

During the March trial, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court heard he had pressed his forehead against hers before pushing her to the ground during the incident at a residential property in Streatham, south London, in June last year.

The pair had an argument over custody arrangements when the rapper dropped off his daughter at the Streatham property.

Mills, who had two children with Ms Jones before they split up in February 2021, was said to have “barged” into the home, banged his head on a fridge three times while holding his son and began “screaming and shouting” at Ms Jones and her mother Dawn Kirk.

The court heard how Ms Jones began filming him but he took her phone from her and then took Ms Kirk’s phone.

The shouting became so loud that it alerted two neighbours and police were called, a judge was told.

The court heard how when they arrived, Mills told officers “I’m the aggressor”, but later gave a prepared statement in a police interview, denying the allegations and claiming he had been assaulted by Ms Jones.

Following the guilty verdict last month, Mills smashed a photographer’s camera outside court after knocking it from their hands and hurling it across the road.

Ms Jones said the verdict showed “wealth and status cannot be used to silence women”.

The musician, famous for chart-topping singles Bonkers and Dance Wiv Me, was made an MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020, and performed at festivals in August including Live At Lydiard in Swindon and Boardmasters in Cornwall.

He released his debut album, Boy In Da Corner, in 2003.

His seventh studio album E3 AF, which refers to his east London postcode and African heritage, is due out on October 30.