Comedian and television presenter Mark Lamarr has received an apology from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after an assault case against him was discontinued. The former Never Mind the Buzzcocks host, born Mark Jones, was charged with common assault and false imprisonment in 2018, but the charges were dropped the day before his first court appearance.
In a letter to Lamarr, the CPS admitted it had been wrong to charge him and apologised for “the obvious distress it has caused”. The letter stated: “The outcome of the review process demonstrates that the prosecutor who authorised the charges against you did so in error.”
A CPS spokesman explained that further material was requested from the police and a senior prosecutor later determined there was “no realistic prospect of conviction”, leading to the discontinuation of the case before Lamarr’s scheduled appearance at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court.
Lamarr, 52, rose to fame in the 1990s presenting Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast and The Word. He hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 1996 to 2005 and presented shows on BBC Radio 2 for 12 years before leaving in 2010. He now describes himself as a “reclusive DJ” on Twitter.
