Judge slams ‘entitled’ son of Liam Gallagher over late-night Tesco Express brawl

A judge has branded the son of Liam Gallagher as “entitled” over a late-night brawl at a Tesco Express.

Gene Appleton Gallagher, 20, and Sonny Starkey, 21, were “young men thinking they can get what they want by misbehaving” when they fought with shop staff, Judge Joanna Greenberg said. The scuffle began at the store in Heath Street, Hampstead, north-west London, shortly before midnight on May 17, 2019, when staff tried to stop their friend, former model Noah Ponte, 21, leaving the shop with a £1.70 can of gin and tonic.

Ponte, a student at UCL who has worked for IMG Models, was unable to pay for it because it was outside the hours Tesco was licensed to sell alcohol, Wood Green Crown Court heard. However, he had paid for nuts of the same value, which he left in the shop, in an attempt to get around the licensing restriction, he told the court.

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Staff were said to have started “grabbing” Ponte before an altercation in which prosecutors said Starkey and Gallagher threw “kicks and punches” at one worker, who then managed to get Starkey - the grandson of Ringo Starr - in a headlock for “some minutes”, the court heard. All three were charged with affray and Gallagher, whose mother is All Saints member Nicole Appleton, faced an additional charge of racially aggravated assault by beating, while Starkey was charged with two counts of assault by beating.

But at what was meant to be the start of their trial on Wednesday, prosecutors decided to bring no evidence as new evidence had come to light which showed there was a “strong case” Starkey was acting in self-defence and Gallagher was defending him, the court heard. Ponte was found not