A London court upheld an April ruling ordering Mitch to pay back two of Winehouse’s friends, Catriona Gourlay and Naomi Parry
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NEED TO KNOW
- A judge ruled Mitch Winehouse knowingly pursued weak claims against his late daughter’s friends that they concealed auctioning off her personal items, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE
- Mitch was aware of the auction plans and communicated with the auction house directly before accusing the friends of wrongdoing
- He must pay nearly $2.7 million in damages and legal fees to Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay within two weeks
Amy Winehouse‘s father, Mitch Winehouse, has been ordered to pay almost $2.7 million to two of his late daughter’s friends after previously accusing them of auctioning off Amy’s personal items for personal gain and without his consent.
Mitch, 75, claimed that Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay, close friends of the late Amy, sold off numerous of her personal items in auctions across the U.S. between 2021 and 2023 without telling him, the BBC, Sky News, and The Telegraph report. A London judge threw out Mitch’s claims in April, and the new final judgment upholds this ruling.
In the initial claims filed by Mitch, he alleged that a 2021 auction organized through the LA-based Julien’s Auctions was “deliberately concealed from him.”
Justice Clarke found that Mitch was “prone to aggressive reactions to perceived wrongs” and had been aware of the intended auction the entire time, per the BBC.
“The claimant chose to bring an inherently weak claim, pursue it aggressively and relentlessly to the end, and make serious and unfounded allegations against the defendants which significantly damaged their reputations, career prospects, financial security and health,” Clarke said in the final ruling on Wednesday, July 29, per the BBC.
According to court documents from April, Mitch had also been in independent communication with Darren Julien, the head of Julien’s Auctions, which handled the sale. He was also allegedly sent several press releases ahead of the auction, and was made aware of the Grammy Museum’s inventory, including which items would be given to the museum.
“He asked Julien’s Auctions not to allow Naomi Parry to see the Estate’s auction contract,” the documents allege.
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Now, Mitch must pay both women back in damages and for their extensive legal fees. The court ordered him to pay £569,330, or $760,533.79, to Parry, and £394,521, or $527,016.93 to Gourlay in installments within two weeks, according to the BBC and Sky News.
Clarke said in the judgment that Mitch “deliberately turned this case into large-scale and expensive litigation, in circumstances calculated to exert commercial pressure on the defendants to settle on his terms,” per the BBC.
Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Winehouse, known for her soulful voice and singular alternative take on 1960s girl groups, rose to fame in the early aughts for her hit album Back to Black. The British artist’s blossoming artistry was cut short in 2011, when she died suddenly from accidental alcohol poisoning.
“We always wanted the world to know the real Amy, where she came from and what made her tick,” her father Mitch told PEOPLE in 2023. “She was a loyal, generous friend. She’d help anybody … Just a wonderful human being who saw the best in everybody.”
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