Amy Winehouse’s father suing friend to ‘hurt’ her, High Court told

A friend of Amy Winehouse has said she believes the singer’s father is suing her to “hurt me in any way he can”, the High Court has been told.

Mitch Winehouse, acting as the administrator of his daughter’s estate, is bringing legal action against her stylist, Naomi Parry, and friend, Catriona Gourlay, for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Winehouse claims that the pair profited from selling dozens of items at auctions in the United States in 2021 and 2023 that they did not have the right to sell, with his lawyers telling a trial in London that they “deliberately concealed” doing so.

Ms Parry and Ms Gourlay are defending the claim, with their barristers saying that the items were either gifted by Ms Winehouse or were already owned by them.

In a witness statement, Ms Parry, who began giving evidence on Wednesday, said that Ms Winehouse was “a friend who was like a sister to me”, but that Mr Winehouse was “volatile”.

But Ms Parry said: “Mitch is the grieving father of a woman I loved like a sister. I have tried hard not to be unfeeling.

“But it is very difficult at this point in time not to believe that he is using these proceedings to hurt me in any way he can.”

Ms Parry said, in her statement, that she met Ms Winehouse in a bar in Soho, London, in 2005 and the pair “hit it off immediately”, before she later met Ms Gourlay.

She began working as the singer’s stylist the following year, before Ms Winehouse’s death aged 27 from alcohol poisoning in July 2011.

Ms Parry told the court that Ms Winehouse was “extremely generous” and would regularly give away items to her friends and family,  “particularly when she didn’t like something or was bored of it”.

She said: “Between me, Amy and Catriona, generosity worked both ways. Amy would make gifts to us of things, but we would also do the same.”

She continued: “As a group of tight-knit friends, the three of us would frequently swap and gift items of clothing, make-up and accessories and other things if we needed something or if we no longer wanted something.”

Lawyers for Mr Winehouse have previously told the court that he believed that all the 834 items in the 2021 auction catalogue were owned by the estate, but that the two women were “asserting ownership of over 150”.

The items auctioned by the estate raised about 1.4 million dollars (£1.05 million), with 30% of the proceeds going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

One item sold by Ms Parry included a silk mini-dress worn by Ms Winehouse in her final performance in Belgrade, Serbia, which was auctioned for 243,200 dollars (£182,656).

Both Ms Parry and Ms Gourlay then sold further items at the second auction in 2023.

In his evidence, Mr Winehouse denied a suggestion by Ms Parry’s barrister, Beth Grossman, that he was bringing proceedings against the pair out of “petty jealousy”.

On Tuesday, Ms Grossman asked Mr Winehouse whether it was his case that her client and Ms Gourlay, who were “living pretty much hand to mouth”, were putting items into the auction to benefit him and the foundation.

“Yes, that is what we assumed,” Mr Winehouse said.

He also told the court that he believed “everything in the auction catalogue belonged to us”.

But Ms Parry said in her statement that she believed that the Winehouse family “knew I was auctioning items”, and that Mr Winehouse was made aware of this at a meeting in October 2018.

She added that she “believed, and still very much believe, that Amy would have wanted me and Catriona to be financially secure”, and said the sums sought by Mr Winehouse were “inflated”.

The trial before Sarah Clarke KC, sitting as a High Court judge, is due to conclude on Friday before resuming in January.