Nigella PA recalls ‘white powder’ and rolled up banknotes

Francesca Grillo (above centre), along with her sister Elisabetta (above right), is accused of defrauding Nigella Lawson and her former husband Charles Saatchi. She said she never saw Ms Lawson taking drugs but that she did find evidence of drug use on many occasions.

Ms Grillo said she first saw the rolled-up notes at the food writer’s Shepherd’s Bush home, in the kitchen after a party, and that she “frequently” saw them in Ms Lawson’s handbag.

She also accused Charles Saatchi, Ms Lawson’s ex-husband, of threatening to “destroy” her and of having a “personal vendetta” against her and sister Elisabetta.

The sisters are alleged to have spent £685,000 on credit cards belonging to the celebrity couple, who were divorced earlier this year. They say that Ms Lawson gave them permission to spend the money, in return for keeping quiet about her drug use.

Every time I went through her handbag there was some (rolled up) notes. It was very frequent. Francesca Grillo

Francesca Grillo told Isleworth crown court in west London that Ms Lawson would sometimes come downstairs with white powder on her nose and that she would point it out to her, but would be told by the cook it was make-up. Asked by the defence counsel if the substance could have been make-up, Ms Grillo replied: “Too white to be make-up.”

During her own evidence, Ms Lawson told the court that she had only taken cocaine a handful of times, including with her late husband John Diamond, and only once during her marriage to the multimillionaire art dealer Mr Saatchi.

However Ms Grillo said that Ms Lawson took cocaine to help her stay up all night “when she was writing a new book” and said that using the drug had caused a change in her personality, making her “absent and grumpy”.

She also said that one of her jobs was to transfer items between Ms Lawson’s handbags. Asked how often she found rolled up bank notes, she said: “Frequently. Every time I went through her handbag there was some notes. It was very frequent.”

Asked if she ever raised the issue of drugs, she replied: “No. I didn’t think it was my place.”

‘You don’t cross Charles Saatchi’

Ms Grillo had to leave the stand in tears after telling the court about an emotional letter the pair wrote to the celebrity couple, in which they called them their “English family”, and wrote: “We saw you like mother and father figures.”

Ms Grillo said that Mr Saatchi had confronted her and her sister with credit card statements at his home in July. She said the situation became “quite scary” as Mr Saatchi told her: “Hide anywhere in Italy but I will find you and destroy you.”

She added: “He said he was going to destroy me and hunt me down. That was his words. His voice was shouting and he was banging on the table and accusing me of various things that were not true.

“The more he got upset, the more I got frightened. You don’t cross Charles Saatchi, everyone knows that.”

‘She didn’t cry very often in public’

In her first statement to police, Ms Grillo did not mention any alleged drug use, but did so after photographs emerged of Mr Saatchi with his hands around Ms Lawson’s neck at Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair over the summer. Mr Saatchi accepted a police caution for the offence, and the couple divorced soon after.

Ms Grillo told the court: “In the photos she appears to be crying. It shocked me because she said she didn’t cry very often in public.

“The one that stuck in my mind was the one of him picking her nose. Maybe he found something relating to drugs. I maybe thought if he didn’t know that, he probably didn’t know about the authorisation – the allowance – of the signatures (by Ms Lawson, on personal expenditure).”

Francesca Grillo, 35, and her sister Elisabetta, 41, each deny a single count of committing fraud by using a company credit card for personal gain between 1 January 2008 and 31 December last year.

The court has heard the siblings bought designer clothes, shoes and luxury holidays on the cards.