Steven Berkoff ‘knocked me down with car then screamed at me to get up’

 
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 12: Actor Steven Berkoff attends the world premiere of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' at Odeon Leicester Square on December 12, 2011 in London, England.
Stuart Wilson/Getty
Pavan Amara13 September 2013

A woman has alleged that she was left “shaking with fear” after actor Steven Berkoff knocked her down with his car, shouted at her while she lay in the road and “bullied” her throughout the court case in which he was found guilty.

Fiona Scully, 35, a designer from Cockfosters, was walking with a friend to a New Year’s Eve dinner in Soho, when a driver stopped to allow them to cross Oxford Street.

Berkoff, 76, pulled his VW Beetle on to the wrong side of the road to overtake the car and Ms Scully claims his bumper hit her right side, leaving her with bruising that was treated at University College Hospital.

Speaking of her ordeal, which she claims left her unable to work for nearly a month, she said: “I was lying on the ground, already frightened, and he kept screaming at me ‘Why did you run out?’, ‘Get up, I didn’t touch you’. He was so aggressive.”

Ms Scully said she felt Berkoff became far more “intimidating” when the case was being heard at City of London magistrates’ court last month.

She said: “He represented himself, so he was the one who was grilling me in court. It felt very personal. He kept saying I was imagining fictitious goings- on and that I was liar.

“He could have spared the entire case by pleading guilty but I felt he enjoyed the process. From the start to the end, I was scared of his behaviour.”

Berkoff told the court he was doing 7-10mph when he hit Ms Scully. Berkoff, from Limehouse, was fined £400 after being found guilty of driving without due care and attention.

A spokeswoman for Berkoff said he “totally refutes” claims of bullying. In a statement, the actor said: “So convinced was I in the rightness of my case that it didn’t even occur to me that I might need a defence lawyer.”

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