Nigella Lawson: The drug accusations

London: Nigella Lawson was so ‘off her head’ on cocaine she let her two assistants blow GBP300,000 on taxis, flights and clothes, a court was told on Monday.

Dubbing her ‘Higella’, her ex-husband Charles Saatchi accused her of poisoning her 19-year-old daughter Cosima with drugs and ‘trashing her life’.

The pair secured a divorce — and Mr Saatchi was cautioned by police — after he was pictured apparently trying to throttle the TV cook at a London restaurant in June.

But Isleworth Crown Court in West London heard claims she had a ‘guilty secret’ — habitual abuse of cocaine as well as class B and prescription drugs.

The allegations emerged as the court prepared to try her former assistants, Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, for fraud.

Barristers for the Italian sisters successfully applied to be able to tell the jury of ‘bad character evidence’ against Lawson, who is a prosecution witness.

The Grillos claim she let them spend wildly as long as they kept from her husband the truth about her and her daughter taking drugs. The court was told Saatchi believes the sisters are innocent.

In a letter to Lawson released to the court, he said he was ‘concerned that Lawson gave the defendants permission to use the accounts for personal purposes whilst under the influence of drugs and/or that Lawson has no credible recollection of events as a result of drug abuse’.

The defence says the charges should be dropped because the Grillos are ‘innocent pawns’ in the battle between Saatchi and Lawson.

Anthony Metzer QC, representing Elisabetta Grillo, pointed out that while the prosecution wanted to claim Lawson and Saatchi were defrauded, Saachi now accepted the massive expenditure by the Grillos was authorised by his ex-wife.

Saatchi and Lawson had been due to testify together but on October 10 he sent her an email revealing he had been passed statements written by the assistants who claimed she had been using cocaine and giving drugs to her daughter Cosima, 19, known as Mimi.

The email said Grillos ‘will get off on the basis that you and Mimi were so off your heads on drugs, you allowed the sisters to spend whatever they liked’.

In written evidence, Saatchi said he stood by his allegations.

Judge Robin Johnson was due to rule on Wednesday on whether the trial should be abandoned.

If the case goes ahead, Lawson will be questioned in the witness box about her alleged cocaine addiction.

Lawson briefly threatened to withdraw from giving evidence, it was said, but changed her mind after Saatchi threatened to sue her for GBP500,000 he said he was owed as a result of the alleged fraud and his legal costs.

Ten days ago, the Crown described the Grillos’ drug claims as ‘scurrilous’. Judge Johnson not only banned the allegations from being raised in court, but imposed a reporting restriction.

On Monday, however, it emerged that Saatchi had told his ex-wife he believed the cocaine claims against her and the judge ruled the sensational ‘bad character’ allegations were admissable.

But Mr Metzer said: ‘The main prosecution witness and “victim” Mr Saatchi now believes the account of the defendants over that of another victim, Miss Lawson, and believes they are innocent.

‘We say Mr Saatchi wants this case to go to court because it gives him a chance for Miss Lawson to be traduced by cross examination. He’s putting her forward as a sacrificial lamb.’