By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter4:30PM GMT 05 Dec 2013Follow
Nigella Lawson has told a court she would never risk making her children "orphans" by becoming addicted to cocaine or other drugs.
She also denied she kept a stash of cocaine in a box with her late husband's wedding ring as she ended two days of evidence in the fraud trial of two former aides.
Miss Lawson told a jury her ex-husband Charles Saatchi knew she had taken cocaine with her first husband John Diamond during his battle with terminal cancer, and she had never promised him that she would not take drugs again.
On an afternoon when defence barristers repeatedly clashed with Miss Lawson as well as the judge in the case, Miss Lawson was told not to answer whether her children had given her a Mother's Day card with a cannabis "spliff" taped to the front.
Miss Lawson became increasingly emotional and told defence barrister Karin Arden: "If you want to put me on trial, put me on trial, but I cannot think that it's right to have me here as a witness for the Crown and treat me like this."
Related Articles
Nigella: 'I'd never make my children orphans through addiction'
05 Dec 2013
Nigella Lawson: I only had dinner parties every two years
05 Dec 2013
Saatchi is guilty of 'peddling lies', says Nigella Lawson
05 Dec 2013
Nigella Lawson gives evidence: live updates
05 Dec 2013
Miss Arden suggested to Miss Lawson that her drug use was a "dark, guilty secret" in her marriage.
She replied: "In respect of the cocaine use when my first husband died, Mr Saatchi knew about it." Asked if she made him a promise that "that was the end of it", she replied: "No, I did not make a promise. Mr Saatchi has phoned up newspapers saying a promise had been extracted and broken, it's not true."
The court heard that Miss Lawson had a jewellery box in the shape of a hollowed out book, in which she kept jewellery inherited from her grandmothers and mother and E wedding rings worn by her and Mr Diamond.
Miss Arden said she also kept cocaine in the box, which had at one point been found by her daughter. She said: "I did not."
She also denied that she frequently had a "runny nose" or whites powder around her nose, and that cannabis dealers turned up at her house to sell her drugs.
She said: "I promise you if I took the drugs to the extent you say I would not be standing here today.
"You know as well as I do that regular cocaine users don't look like this, they're scrawny. If you think I'm going to sabotage my health and run the risk of leaving my children orphans you are very wrong."
Miss Arden asked: "Do you agree that you received a Mother's Day card in 2011 or 2012 with a spliff taped to the card saying 'To enjoy later'?"
Judge Robin Johnson stepped in and told Miss Arden: "That ends your cross-examination. I'm not having any more. You have exhausted my patience."
He told Miss Lawson not to answer the question.
Earlier, Miss Lawson rejected the suggestion that she allowed a former aide to "spend, spend, spend" on a company credit card when she and Charles Saatchi sold their home for £25 million.
Francesca Grillo is accused of fraudulently spending £580,000 on the credit card, which Miss Lawson described as "disgusting, greedy".
She said it was "totally implausible" that she would allow Miss Grillo to spend as much on clothes for a "treat" in one transaction as some people spend on a car.
Karin Arden, defending Miss Grillo, who denies fraud, suggested to Miss Lawson that she loosened the family purse strings when she and Mr Saatchi put their home in Eaton Square, west London, on the market for £37m.
Miss Arden suggested that Miss Lawson had allowed Miss Grillo to spend £5,205 on a jacket and dresses in Miu Miu as a reward for all her hard work keeping the house clean for prospective buyers to see it.
"You told her to buy them on the credit card because she deserved it," Miss Arden suggested.
"Five thousand pounds?! Why on earth would I do that?" Miss Lawson replied. "There are cars that cost that much money."
Miss Arden said: "You were trying to sell the house for £37m, it was giddy money and you told her to treat herself."
Miss Lawson, who said she had not personally profited from the eventual £25m sale of Mr Saatchi's house, rejected this.
Miss Lawson has now finished giving evidence, having spent almost two full days in the witness box.
Law and OrderNews »UK News »Celebrity news »Gordon Rayner »Crime »
In Law and Order
View the
Original article
