Undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood is set to be investigated by police for perjury after the collapse of the trial of former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos.
A judge said yesterday that there were “strong grounds” to believe the so-called ‘Fake Sheikh’ had lied on the witness stand and “manipulated the evidence” at the trial of Ms Contostavlos. She had allegedly boasted she could “sort out” cocaine for Mr Mahmood in a tabloid sting.
After the trial collapsed the 26-year-old singer, who denied brokering a drugs deal, condemned “horrific and disgusting entrapment by Mazher Mahmood and the Sun on Sunday”.
Scotland Yard said today it had sent details of the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions and talks were taking place with prosecutors on the “next steps”. The Sun on Sunday has suspended Mr Mahmood.
During the trial, jurors had heard how Mahmood had posed as Hollywood film producer Sammy Khan to trap Ms Contostavlos. He dangled the bait of a bogus £3 million film contract to star with Leonardo DiCaprio. He secretly taped and filmed meetings in which she claimed to have had a drugs past and could arrange “white sweets”, meaning cocaine, for him.
Eventually her friend Michael Coombs delivered the cocaine hidden in his sock to Mahmood at the Dorchester and the defendants were arrested.
Tulisa on trial - in pictures
However, the court heard that Ms Contostavlos said she had told Mahmood’s chauffeur, Alan Smith, that she was anti-drugs because a family member had had a problem. Smith made a statement supporting the claim which he later retracted.
In a pre-trial hearing Mahmood told the judge that he had no knowledge of Smith’s statement — but during the trial Mahmood was “entirely inconsistent” and claimed he had seen the statement on email. The judge said: “There are strong grounds for believing that Mahmood told me lies when he gave evidence (in the pre-trial hearing).
“There are also strong grounds for believing that the underlying purpose of these lies was to conceal the fact he had been manipulating the evidence in this case by getting Smith to change his account.”
