Accepting one count of sexual assault at a Criminal Court in London, the co-founder of ASAP Mob is also told to pay his assault victim $3,100 compensation.
- Jan 4, 2019
AceShowbiz - American rapper A$AP Bari has pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting a woman at a London hotel after video emerged of the incident.
According to Britain's Evening Standard newspaper, the musician and fashion designer, real name Jabari Shelton admitted one count of sexual assault at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in the British capital on Thursday, January 03.
Footage played in court showed Shelton, a founder of the A$AP Mob hip-hop collective, pull the sheets off the unnamed woman as she lay naked in bed in her hotel room, asking her to perform a sex act before slapping her bottom as she told him to "stop".
Sentencing him, Judge Zoe Smith said he had shown a "very unpleasant attitude" towards women and imposed a $5,000 (£4,000) fine. The hip-hop star was also ordered to pay his victim $3,100 (£2,500) compensation as well as $3,100 in court costs.
Prosecuting lawyer James Lofthouse said the rapper first approached his victim as she waited for a taxi after the Wireless Festival in July 2017, and that she went to the east London hotel with another man. She was woken by the defendant entering her room in the early hours of the morning, claiming she had slept with his assistant. The woman initially did not report the assault until a few days later, when she became aware the video was circulating online.
Shelton was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport in May while waiting for a transfer flight bound for South Africa.
At a hearing in June, the rapper's lawyer Gideon Cammerman said his client would contest two charges of sexual assault relating to the incident, but he changed his plea after flying in from New York to London for the trial. The 27-year-old arrived at court on Thursday dressed in a white balaclava and padded coat.
Cammerman told the June hearing that he is also facing a civil claim for $1 million (£790,000) in the U.S. and that the complaint in the U.K. had been made for the purpose of improving the chance of success in that case. Shelton has countersued his accuser in America for defamation and civil extortion.
