Amy Winehouse’s father sues singer’s friends over auctioned belongings

Amy Winehouse peforming in 2007 (Picture: Getty)Getty Images

Henry Legge KC, representing Winehouse – who inherited his daughter's multi-million-pound fortune after she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 aged 27 – told the court: “Ms Parry and Ms Gourlay deliberately concealed from Mr Winehouse the fact that they were auctioning the items consigned by them to the 2021 auction and that they were claiming ownership of those items.”

Among the disputed items are a silk mini-dress worn by Amy during her final performance in Belgrade, Serbia, which sold for $243,200 (£182,000) and which Parry claims belongs to her; and a pair of blood-stained ballet slippers that the singer was pictured wearing in 2007, which Gourlay sold for £3,000.

Speaking in court yesterday, Winehouse said: “I assume that, being so close, Amy would have given them some things, but 150 items, I just cannot believe it.”

Catriona Gourlay and Naomi Parry at the launch of the Amy Winehouse Exhibit in LA in 2020 (Picture: Getty)Getty Images for The Recording A

However in written submissions, Parry’s barrister Beth Grossman claimed: “Both defendants contend that the vast majority of the disputed items were in their possession from before Amy’s death in 2011, and in many instances from years before her death.

“Moreover, each defendant alleges that a number of disputed items had, in fact, always belonged to them and had only ever been loaned by Amy.”

 Ted Loveday, representing Gourlay, claimed that after the release of Winehouse’s chart topping album Back to Black in 2006, the star “increasingly gave away items” to his client and others as part of “extravagant acts of generosity”.

He added that Gourlay “believed, and still believes, that the sale of the items is what Amy would have wanted.”

The trial is due to conclude this week.