Happy Mondays member loses appeal and temper over attack on ex-partner

A MEMBER of alternative rock band Happy Mondays has lost an appeal against his conviction for assault.

Mark Berry, known as Bez, was warned he faced rearrest in the dock yesterday as he reacted angrily to the judgment.

He was convicted of attacking his former partner and has been ordered to pay 500 in court costs.

But from the dock, he said "It's a joke, I'm going to take this to a higher court. I'm not paying nothing, I don't give a s**t."

Judge Roger Dutton, hearing the day-long appeal with two magistrates at Manchester Crown Court, told Mr Berry he needed to take legal advice before launching a further appeal to the High Court.

"What a stitch-up," replied an irate Mr Berry. At this point Judge Dutton said: "I would be very careful what you choose to say.

"If you express yourself in that way again I will have you arrested."

Bez, who found fame for his bizarre dancing in the Happy Mondays in the late 1980s, was jailed for four weeks in August after a row over money with Monica Ward, the mother of his two-year-old child.

He flew into a rage as he put his hands round her neck and throttled her, Manchester Magistrates' Court heard.

Outside court Peter Eatherall, his solicitor, said it was "unlikely" the case would go to the Court of Appeal.