Lee Ryan: Blue singer assault charge dropped

Lee Ryan initially pleaded guilty following legal advice

A charge against Blue star Lee Ryan of assaulting a police officer has been dropped after he withdrew his guilty plea.

At a trial in January, Ryan, 40, admitted biting a police officer.

But in a court hearing last month the singer said he had only entered that plea following "poor advice from his solicitor" at the time.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, Ryan was told the Crown Prosecution Service had dropped the charge.

It related to an incident when Ryan was drunk on a plane from Glasgow to London City Airport on 31 July last year.

The boyband member had earlier pleaded guilty to being drunk on an aircraft, and in January at Ealing Magistrates' Court he was found guilty of racially aggravated common assault by beating and behaving in an abusive way towards the cabin crew member.

Ryan performed with Blue at the O2 Arena in London in December

Speaking to the court in the latest hearing, District Judge Tan Ikram said: "The drunkenness [he admitted] is as serious as the charges he has been found guilty of."

He told Ryan's defence lawyer Keima Payton the cabin crew member "formed the view that your client was drunk", adding this provided a backdrop for the offences, with all three charges "intertwined".

Ryan will be sentenced for the other convictions at Isleworth Crown Court at a later date to be confirmed.

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