MARTINE WITHDRAWS pounds 75,000 BAIL BOND FOR LOVE-CHEAT EX; Now

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Mar 18, 2001 | by RICK HEWETT Showbusiness

POP star Martine McCutcheon has withdrawn a pounds 75,000 bail surety which kept womanising ex-boyfriend Jonathan Barnham out of jail on remand, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

The actress originally pledged the huge cash sum to secure his freedom when he was accused of being part of a drugs smuggling ring.

But the 24-year-old singer, who ditched Barnham after discovering a string of his affairs, has now withdrawn the offer.

A wealthy relative has now stepped in and offered to provide the bail for Barnham. The actor faces charges related to drug smuggling. His trial begins next month.

A senior legal source said: "Ms McCutcheon had withdrawn the bail surety.

"It has been accepted that somebody else will be putting up the surety. I believe it is one of Barnham's relatives."

Martine claims she is still friends with Barnham. Speaking this week she said: "We are still friends but we're not going out any more.

"We've done a lot of talking together and worked out a lot of things, but I don't want to say too much about it."

Friends of the actress say her break-up with Barnham could not have been more acrimonious. One said: "Jonathan messed Martine around for a long time. She forgave his womanising several times and took him back but dumped him in the end.

"Taking away his bail surety was the ultimate way of putting a full stop at the end of the relationship."

Martine recently started dating actor Steve John Shepherd, who played her brother in TV drama The Knock.

The actress-who is winning rave reviews as Eliza Doolittle in the London production of My Fair Lady - has been spotted eating with him at several fashionable London restaurants and Martine, 24, recently invited her new boyfriend to stay the night at her West London flat.

Barnham, 24, is charged with one count of conspiring to smuggle class B drug cannabis along with his 51-year-old father of the same name and a 70-year-old man called Eric Mason between the summer of 1996 and early 1998.

The preliminary hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, East London, which started on Wednesday, is expected to run for a month.

The three accused deny all charges. Barnham of Kingston, Surrey, remains on conditional bail until the trial starts on April 30.