Celebrity Big Brother star 'punched and strangled his girlfriend after she refused to stay up listening to music with him'

Andrew Stone as he arrived at Hammersmith Magistrates Court 

A reality TV star who worked with Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue punched and strangled his girlfriend in a vodka fuelled rage, a court heard today.
Dancer Andrew Stone, who has appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and Pineapple Dance Studios, kicked his girlfriend out of his bed, grabbed her by the throat and tried to choke her after she refused to stay up late and listen to music.
Stone, 40, had drunk five double vodkas and coke at his flat in Marylebone, central London, when he attacked girlfriend Claudia Cersosimo in the early hours of January 30 this year.
Hammersmith Magistrates' Court heard how Miss Cersosimo, 25, was left so scared by the attack that the mere mention of Stone’s name causes an anxiety attack.
Miss Cersosimo was ill with a viral infection and trying to sleep but Stone was playing loud music and kept badgering her to answer questions about the tracks he was playing.
When the 25 year-old told him she just wanted to get to sleep Stone attacked her.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, she told the court: 'He said if I didn’t answer him he would kick me out of the bed. Then he chucked me out of the bed and I span out.

'I don’t know how it happened because it was all so fast but he was somehow at my side wrestling me out of the bed. He used his leg, I think it must have taken two goes and then I landed on the floor.
'He wrestled me onto the bed and then he pinned me down and with his hand started strangling me so I couldn’t breathe.

Andrew Stone shot to fame in 2010's Pineapple Dance Studios with Louie Spence

Andrew Stone is accused of attacking his girlfriend because she refused to listen to music with him

'He was putting quite a lot of weight down on me at the same time he pinned my arms down because I was trying to push him off me.
'I was really scared at that point, I think I was just shouting "Get off me, Get off me".'
Wearing a dark grey sparkly blazer, black suit trousers and patent black leather shoes, Stone shook his head as he listened to the evidence against him.
He claims that Miss Cerosimo's injuries were self inflicted.
Miss Cersosimo added that she screamed at Stone to get off her, but he lunged for her again and punched her.
She said: 'As he came up he punched me in my right eye, I remember starting to scream and holding my right eye.

Andrew Stone, who was on Celebrity Big Brother, denies attacking her, claiming that the injuries were self-inflicted

'I remember getting down on the floor and crawling away from the bed. He came at me again and he was holding me by the collar of the T-shirt I was wearing. He was yanking my collar it left red marks round my neck.'
Miss Cersosimo managed to kick Stone off her, and fled to the bathroom where she called the police on her mobile phone.
But she didn’t lock the door and Stone followed her to the bathroom, kicked the door open and stood in the doorway blocking her way out.
'He was more calm, but he hadn’t acknowledged what he had just done, he just said ‘get off the phone’ he was really rude and abrupt. He was still aggressive in his tone,' she said.

She managed to get to the front door where she tried to buzz the police in through the intercom but Stone twice hit the intercom phone out of her hand.
She told the court: 'Then he got my clothes and bag and stuff and threw it by the door and that is when the police entered the property.'
Following his arrest, he told police the couple had argued, and that she locked herself in the bathroom and inflicted the injuries on herself.
‘She always does that - making a big deal out of something small,’ he said.
The 25 year-old met the reality TV star in a nightclub in Covent Garden, central London, a year earlier and had been dating for a few months.
But the pair had a tempestuous relationship and Miss Cersosimo said she believed Stone was cheating on her.
Defence counsel Tyrone Smith asked Miss Cersosimo: 'You believed he was having sex with other people.'
She replied: 'Yes'.

The dancer told police that he had drank four or five double vodkas that evening

Referring to a text message Miss Cersosimo has sent to Stone Mr Smith said: 'You name a girl and you believe she was smirking at you and you believe the defendant was texting her for sex.'
Miss Cersosimo said: 'Yes, because I had seen the text messages. He kept telling me how he didn’t want to be sleeping with other girls anymore and telling me that he loved me, but the day (that text) was sent he was with her.'
She told the court: 'I knew what he was like, that was effectively cheating on me.'
Miss Cerosimo has struggled with a history of depression and self-harm and once fled to Stone’s bathroom with a kitchen knife.

The dancer has a 30 years dance experience and has performed alongside Britney Spears (left) and Kylie Minogue (right)

Prosecuting lawyers say that since the alleged attack she has been suffering from severe anxiety attacks.
Jumoke Hughes said: 'Since this she has been having severe anxiety attacks. The mere mention of the defendant’s name or seeing the defendant causes her to have serious attacks.'
Stone, denies common assault.
Originally from Kettering in Northamptonshire, Stone boasts a CV featuring 30 years’ dance experience.
He trained at the Central School of Ballet and has toured with stars including Kylie, Britney Spears, Tina Turner, and Ricky Martin.
Stone denies a single count of common assault
The case continues.

DAILYMAIL