Former TV and radio star Samantha Bush, of Filey, is cleared of plot to intimidate her ex by 'sending man round to his home in the dead of night'

Samantha Bush, 51, from Filey, was accused of breaching a restraining order by “encouraging” an unidentified man to go around to the home of her ex-partner in the dead of night.

Ms Bush, aka Mason, was acquitted and fully exonerated, but York Crown Court heard, at the hearing on Friday, that someone had been to her ex-partner’s home in the town in the early hours, kicked his door and thrown plant pots on the ground, smashing them to bits.

The prosecution alleged that Ms Bush was lurking in the shadows when an unidentified man - whom the defence claimed could have been a day-tripper or tourist - turned up at the flat at about 1.30am in early August last year and attacked his door.

Ms Bush, of Hope Street, Filey, vehemently denied she was at the scene and claimed she had “moved on with my life” and didn’t want anything to do with her ex-partner, and that “I don’t want anything he’s got”.

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Ms Bush - a former ITV presenter and BBC Radio Bristol host - was found not guilty after the defence convinced the jury that the evidence against the former journalist, who had been working as a pub landlady in Filey, did not stack up.

In May 2018, Ms Bush was given a suspended prison sentence and two-year restraining order prohibiting her from approaching or contacting her former partner after she was convicted of wounding.

In that incident, the former radio star - who used to present Custom Choppers for Men & Motors, the men’s lifestyle television channel, before joining BBC Radio Bristol where she hosted the station’s weekday afternoon show - smashed a wine bottle over her partner’s head at the former couple’s then home, leaving him with a gash to the back of his head which required several stitches. She then went upstairs to watch TV as he bled from a gaping wound.

The attack occurred after Ms Bush - who, the court at the time heard, had had problems with alcohol - flew into a rage following an argument.

Ms Bush - the ex-wife of Bristol millionaire jeweller Andrew Bush, who was murdered by his Slovakian girlfriend in Spain six years ago - appeared for trial on the breach charge last week after denying the allegation.

Her barrister Chris Dunn tried to get the case thrown out during the two-day trial because of a lack of evidence which he described as “terrible”.

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Ms Bush described as “insane” the notion that she would go around to her ex-partner’s flat in Belle Vue Street while on a restraining order.

Prosecutor Keith Allen put it to Ms Bush that her ex-partner had seen a male “come to his house and start kicking… and banging at the door”, and claimed that she had instigated this, but she replied: “Why would I want to do that?”

Her ex-partner, who was named in court, said there was a “male and a female” outside his home and that he was “70-to-80 per-cent sure” that the female was Ms Bush.

Judge Simon Jackson QC said it was clear that someone had been to the flat “trying to boot in (the) back door”, but there was no irrefutable evidence that this was anyone known to Ms Bush.

The jury’s not-guilty verdict was unanimous.