Mr Hendricks’ company, Mr H TV, produced Mr Andre’s The Next Chapter series and Here To Help, along with Kerry Katona’s reality projects, working closely with the singers’ manager Claire Powell, head of CAN Associates.
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“Summing up, Mr Justice Flaux spoke in harsh terms about the 42 year old former pop star’s testimony that he felt physically threatened by Hendricks” behaviour, which included “scurrilous and vitriolic” tweets directed at his close friend and manager Claire Powell, while their professional relationship was deteriorating in rancorous fashion.
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Mr Andre claimed he had been told that Mr Hendricks made “death threats” in a £7m contract wrangle with ITV2.
Neville Hendricks sued the channel after it pulled the plug on him producing reality shows involving Peter and Kerry Katona.
‘I am quite satisfied no death threats were ever made by Mr Hendricks against Ms Powell or against anyone else’.
“That leaves two possible explanations of Mr Andre’s evidence: Either Miss Powell lied to him and told him there had been death threats when there had not, or his evidence is a complete fabrication”.
There had been false rumours that Mr Hendricks was having an affair with Katona.
In contrast, Mr Justice Flaux described Neville as “an engaging personality” and “an essentially honest witness”.
As a result of this, Andre’s representatives wrote to Hendricks’ lawyers stating that he wanted nothing more to do with him or his production company. The rumour ultimately ended Powell and Katona’s management agreement.
“A very successful independent production company has been ruined by these people and they should hang their heads in shame”.
For example, at one point in the bust-up Hendricks set up a Twitter account that began to tweet “pretty unpleasant” comments about Andre and Powell’s private lives. Efforts to resolve the dispute between them failed, and Andre’s solicitors sent a letter to Hendricks’ company saying he “wanted no further dealings whatsoever”.
ITV2 also sought to terminate the agreement on the ground that a proposal that Katona should appear on Celebrity Big Brother was a fundamental breach by Mr H TV of an “exclusivity obligation” owed to the cable channel in the agreement.
Mr H TV claimed damages including lost profits estimated at up to £7million.
The Strictly Come Dancing contestant’s evidence against producer Neville Hendricks was described by Mr Justice Flaux as “particularly unreliable”.
But the judge ruled that Andre and Powell used the tweets as a pretext to refuse to film Peter Andre: the Next Chapter, and to put pressure on ITV2 to terminate the contract with Hendricks.
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Partly as a result of Andre’s poor performance in court – alongside a number of other contributing factors – Justice Flaux ruled that it was ITV who was in breach of contract and not Hendricks.
