Dawn French and Sir Lenny Henry’s adopted daughter Billie, 28, denies charge of controlling and coercive behaviour towards ex-boyfriend
- Billie Henry, 28, is accused of sending threats violence to her ex, Samuel King
- She appeared at Truro Crown Court to deny one charge of controlling behaviour
- Daughter of Sir Lenny Henry and Dawn French will go on trial May 11 next year
The adopted daughter of Sir Lenny Henry and Dawn French denied harassing her ex-boyfriend and making false sex abuse claims, a court heard today.
Billie Henry, 28, who is accused of sending excessive emails and text messages including threats of violence to Samuel King, appeared at Truro Crown Court on Friday morning after her case was moved up from Bodmin Magistrates’ last week.
Henry, wearing a green buttoned-up Parka jacket and leopard print boots, pleaded not guilty to conducting controlling behaviour in a relationship, and will stand trial next year.
Billie Henry, 28, who is accused of sending excessive emails and text messages including threats of violence to her ex, Samuel King, arrived at Truro Crown Court on Friday morning after her case was moved up from Bodmin Magistrates’ last week
She was released on conditional bail, ordered not to contact Mr King, and told she would stand trial on May 11, 2020.
At Bodmin Magistrates’ Court last week, a judge heard Henry falsely claimed she was sexually and physically abused ‘while engaged in an intimate personal relationship’ with Mr King between August 2018 and February 2019, it is alleged.
The charge states that her behaviour had a serious effect on him.
It usually carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison or an unlimited fine but prosecutor Paul Gallagher told the court Henry’s alleged offence could potentially lead to a one-year jail term.
The offence is alleged to have been committed in the village of Dobwalls, near Liskeard, Cornwall, close to the home where Henry was brought up with her TV star parents.
Henry, wearing a green buttoned-up Parka jacket and leopard print boots, attended the case management hearing to find out when she will go on trial next year
Henry moved out of French’s £3m home in the Cornish village of Fowey four years ago but lives just 12 miles away from her mother.
French, 62, went public two years ago about her difficult relationship with her daughter, saying they were in a ‘warring’ mother and daughter relationship.
The comedy actress said she hoped her daughter, who she adopted with her ex-husband Sir Lenny Henry, would ‘get to the other side’ of their relationship, after years of difficulty.
In an interview two years ago she said: ‘I expected that if you nurture [a child], like a tomato plant, it grows towards the light, and surely if your mum is someone who wants to have fun with you and have adventures and read with you and spend time with you, how could you ever have a war?
‘But I haven’t got a kid who wants to read with me and have adventures with me, I’ve got a different kind of kid who’s a different kind of set of challenges and that’s been my lesson.
‘Our relationship exists in a bizarre kind of process of peacetime, small battles, war.
‘The peacetime is much more than the other two energies, but we have our wars.’
Henry moved out of French’s £3m home in the Cornish village of Fowey four years ago but lives just 12 miles away from her mother. French, 62, went public two years ago about her difficult relationship with her daughter, saying they were in a ‘warring’ mother and daughter relationship (the family are pictured together in 2005)