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There was a time when the Captain’s Club Hotel in Christchurch, Dorset, might have welcomed the likes of former beauty queen Samantha Williamson into its award-winning riverside restaurant.
Photos from her Facebook page show the woman who represented Great Britain at the Miss Europe pageant in 2003 sipping champagne in the grounds of what looks like a Mediterranean villa and posing in Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses on a sunny quayside in Morocco.
The glamorous 44-year-old was once married to a wealthy American stockbroker and became a catwalk model represented by the Storm agency, which launched the careers of supermodels Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne.
All in all, she looks exactly the kind of person who would be very much at home in what the hotel describes as the ‘sleek atmospheric interior’ of its bar.
Unfortunately, its patrons saw a different side to Ms Williamson when, in June last year, she lurched towards an unfortunate couple enjoying a quiet meal as part of a £1,200 weekend getaway to celebrate their 40th anniversary and the husband’s recovery from throat cancer.
That came to an abrupt end when the over-refreshed mother of two from Salisbury, Wiltshire, jumped on to the man’s lap and slurred: ‘I want to sit on your big bamboo.’
He rejected her advances and she went berserk. Williamson swiped the drinks and a candle off the table, causing them to spill over the man’s wife.
This led to an altercation in which the husband pushed her to get her away from his wife.
There was a time when the Captain’s Club Hotel in Christchurch, Dorset, might have welcomed the likes of former beauty queen Samantha Williamson (pictured as Miss UK at the Miss Europe 2003 competition in Paris)
Unfortunately, its patrons saw a different side to Ms Williamson when, in June last year, she sexually assaulted a man celebrating his cancer all-clear at an upscale restaurant. Victim Steven Kennedy (pictured) has now spoken out in an emotional interview with the Daily Mail today
The attack saw the over-refreshed mother of two (pictured in CCTV footage) from Salisbury, Wiltshire, jump on to his lap and slur: ‘I want to sit on your big bamboo’
Both tumbled to the floor before Williamson spat at him and scratched him, drawing blood.
This humiliation and groping of a stranger was unfortunate enough, but it’s what happened next that has raised eyebrows up and down the country.
Instead of arresting her and keeping her in custody, the police chose to take Williamson home and when she was subsequently charged it was with sexual assault, rather than actual assault.
Appearing before magistrates in Poole this week, she was given a six-month community order and told to pay £1,000 compensation to the victim, Steven Kennedy, who reveals in an emotional interview with the Daily Mail today he is furious she has been let off with a more lenient punishment than a man would have been given.
So much so that he previously said he is considering a private prosecution.
This terrible end to what was supposed to be a night of celebration saw the couple drawn into what seems to be the latest sad chapter in the story of Samantha Williamson, a woman whose life has imploded dramatically since her modelling heyday.
Things were very different back in 1998 when the then-teenager’s life was transformed after she won Face Of The Year, a model search competition held by a hair salon in her hometown of Bournemouth.
It would prove to be the launching pad to the modelling career that saw her travelling the world on assignments, as well as taking part in that 2003 Miss Europe pageant.
Appearing before magistrates in Poole this week, Williamson was given a six-month community order and told to pay £1,000 compensation to Steven Kennedy
It is the latest sad chapter in the story of Samantha Williamson, a woman whose life appears to have imploded dramatically since her modelling heyday
After moving back to the UK following a stint in New York, Williamson ended up with Adrian George (pictured together), a Bournemouth-based window fitter with a string of criminal convictions dating back 18 years
Although the crown was taken by Miss Hungary, Williamson continued to pursue her modelling dreams.
To do so, she left behind her mum Amanda, 70, her builder stepfather Kenny, 75, and her two younger sisters and brother, and moved to America to marry a stockbroker called Josh.
There she gave up work and became a full-time mother after giving birth to son Parker.
In an interview with the local paper in 2008, her stepfather described his pride at her success, but highlighted that it had not all been plain sailing when Williamson suffered from anorexia.
He said: ‘We were very worried about her for a while.
‘She was told she didn’t get a job because she was too big. Then she got so thin she got turned down for being too skinny.’
In a brief transatlantic chat with the newspaper, Williamson said of her life on the beauty circuit: ‘It’s certainly more glamorous than being a mum but I wouldn’t change it for the world – I love being a mum.’
But when her marriage broke down she returned to the UK – without her teenage son. She found love again with former restaurant boss-turned-artist Charles Williamson.
This week, it was Samantha Williamson’s turn to appear in court
Pictured is mother-of-two Samantha Williamson, previously Vaughan, who used to be a model
They wed in 2014 and have a ten-year-old daughter, but that marriage ended too.
How she must wish that relationship had lasted longer because, following Charles Williamson, she ended up with Adrian George, a Bournemouth-based window fitter with a string of criminal convictions dating back 18 years.
Those included driving while disqualified and without insurance, and two drink-driving offences.
In 2014, he also failed to stop at the scene of an accident after he knocked a cyclist off her bike, leaving her with life-changing injuries, including fractures and brain damage.
This week, it was Samantha Williamson’s turn to appear in court.
Magistrates were told that it was the revelation by George that they would be relocating to a new area that caused her to drink herself into oblivion on the day of the assault, leading her to act ‘like a woman possessed’.
Williamson’s lawyer James Moore described her as a vulnerable woman, battling ‘day-to-day mental health issues and not being with her children’.
Judging by her Facebook page, she is no longer in touch with George and presumably out of the relationship that apparently acted as a catalyst for her catastrophic drunken actions.
‘This was very unfortunate, she feels pure regret, genuine remorse and pure embarrassment’, the lawyer said
Williamson’s legal representative told the magistrates that she has undertaken counselling
As for Williamson herself, she told the Mail this week: ‘I just want it all to go away’
Whether this will help her get back on the right path remains to be seen, given that, as Moore attested, alcohol is Williamson’s ‘kryptonite’.
‘This was very unfortunate, she feels pure regret, genuine remorse and pure embarrassment.
‘She was someone distressed, obviously intoxicated and needs help, and unfortunately she has carried that over onto people she doesn’t know.’
He told the magistrates that Williamson has undertaken counselling.
As for Williamson herself, she told the Mail this week: ‘I just want it all to go away.
‘I’m trying to put it all behind me and rebuild my life. It’s been very hard. I wish this whole thing would just disappear.
‘My life was not always like this. I don’t know where it all went wrong. I made some bad choices.’
Although believed to be unemployed, she will now have to find the £1,000 to compensate her victim – not that it will go far in erasing the memory of that awful evening.
‘I’m trying to put it all behind me and rebuild my life. It’s been very hard. I wish this whole thing would just disappear’, she continued
She added: ‘My life was not always like this. I don’t know where it all went wrong. I made some bad choices’
Did she think I’d be flattered to have her sit on my lap? I wasn’t. I felt violated and was let down by police. If a man had done that to a woman he’d be locked up… but she walked away with a fine
Exclusive interview by Jenny Johnston
What does the victim of a sexual assault – or a physical assault, for that matter – look like?
Steven Kennedy is a walking, talking example of how victims do not fit one shape, size, gender or stereotype.
‘I mean, I’m a big bloke,’ he says. ‘I’m 6ft 2in and I weigh 23st, although this is after I lost 8st during my cancer treatment.’
He gives a wry smile. ‘I wouldn’t recommend the diet.’
Steven is a straight-talking, naturally chirpy 59-year-old HGV driver from Ruislip, west London, who, until recently, was living quietly with his wife and battling a throat cancer diagnosis, ‘minding my own business and just trying to stay alive for my family’.
He has two grown-up daughters and a baby grandson.
On Tuesday, though, he went to court to give evidence about being the victim of a sexual assault.
Away for a celebratory weekend at a hotel and spa in Christchurch, Dorset, with his wife last June – a much-anticipated break to mark being in remission from cancer – Steven became the focus of unwanted attention from a drunk stranger, an attractive younger woman who had been sitting at the bar.
What does the victim of a sexual assault – or a physical assault, for that matter – look like? Steven Kennedy (pictured) is a walking, talking example of how victims do not fit one shape, size, gender or stereotype
Upset about something, Samantha Williamson (pictured outside court), 44, became abusive to Steven’s wife, who had kindly asked if she was OK, and if she needed them to call her a taxi. Then she turned her considerable attentions to Steven, forcing herself onto his lap
Upset about something, Samantha Williamson, 44, became abusive to Steven’s wife, who had kindly asked if she was OK, and if she needed them to call her a taxi.
Then she turned her considerable attentions to Steven, forcing herself onto his lap, grinding suggestively and telling him (as his horrified wife looked on): ‘I want to sit on your big bamboo.’
When he rejected Williamson’s advances, Poole Magistrates’ Court heard, she ‘acted like a woman possessed’, swiping drinks, glasses and a candle from the table.
‘It was mad. Have you seen The Exorcist?’ Steven asks. ‘She was like that. I don’t know what planet she was on.
‘I think getting on my lap in the first place was a dig at my wife – basically she was saying, “I can have your man any time I want”, but maybe she thought I’d be flattered to have a blonde woman on my lap. I wasn’t.’
With his wife getting showered in glass, Steven pushed Williamson away, ca
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read Full Story…
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