Ex-Oasis manager Alan McGee wins court case against protégée who harassed him online and equated him to Jimmy Savile after her career failed to take off
- Alan McGee said he had a ‘casual sexual relationship’ with singer Cat Speranza
The former manager of Oasis has won a High Court bid against a singer he slept with after she accused him of being a racist and equated him to Jimmy Savile.
Alan McGee, who is well known in the music industry, said he had a ‘casual sexual relationship’ with singer Cat Speranza – whose real name is Katie Lewis – after they met at a party in 2019 and he signed her band, Cat SFX, to his label.
He said the singer subjected him to a ‘disturbing and appalling’ campaign of harassment, where he said she falsely claimed he was a racist, rapist and paedophile.
The record-label manager also sued Ms Lewis, who did not attend the hearing and was not represented, for libel and misuse of private information.
Lawyers for Mr McGee appeared in court on Thursday in a bid for a default judgement against the singer. The court heard that after the release of Cat SFX’s sixth single in July 2022, Ms Lewis ‘became extremely angry with Mr McGee at the lack of commercial interest in her music’.
Alan McGee pictured with singer Cat Speranza – whose real name is Katie Lewis
London punk band Cat SFX were signed to Mr McGee’s label after they met at a party in 2019
Following the falling out, she emailed him telling him to tell people he had told about their relationship to ‘shut up’ and threatening to ‘lose my s**t and there will be consequences,’ she said.
The court also heard that she alleged Mr McGee had ‘been bragging to people in the music industry about sleeping with her’. Mr McGee also did not attend the court for the hearing.
Barrister Kate Wilson, for the manager, said that from April this year, Ms Lewis had made multiple ‘disturbing’ posts on social media against Mr McGee, with more than 100 posts ‘in a matter of a few weeks’.
Ms Wilson said: ‘It was voluminous…It was material that came out day after day after day. It’s very hard to capture the very extensive campaign that was carried out against the claimant. My client just wants this to stop.’
She said Miss Speranza’s conduct had been ‘obsessive and erratic,’ posting to more than 10,000 people on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, with the seriousness of her posts escalating quickly.
Using the #MeToo hashtag, she accused him of being a sociopath, rapist and racist, linked him with Savile and other abusers, and suggested he made ‘unwanted sexual advances to her’.
‘On 25 April 2023, she had labelled him a clown and a bully, by 6 May she was equating him with Savile, and only two days later she was associating him with Nazis,’ she said.
The record-label manager also sued Ms Lewis, who did not attend the hearing and was not represented, for libel and misuse of private information (pictured: Noel Gallagher pictured with Katie Lewis)
‘In addition to Savile, she then went on to compare him to some of the other most reviled figures of recent times – Weinstein, Maxwell and Epstein.’
Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled in Mr McGee’s favour, granting the default judgment after Ms Lewis did not take part in the legal proceedings.
In her ruling, the judge did not consider the merits of the case but said Mr McGee’s claim was correctly filed and ‘persuades me it is not unreal to conclude this course of conduct amounts to harassment’.
Mrs Justice Collins Rice found Ms Lewis was aware of the legal case and Thursday’s hearing, adding: ‘The defendant has not engaged apparently in any way at all.’
The judge also ruled that Ms Lewis has 28 days to remove the harassing posts and not repeat them, or to provide reasons why posts should not be removed.
Neither she, nor Mr McGee, attended the court personally for the hearing.
Indie music industry legend Mr McGee was the founder of Creation Records and the man who discovered Oasis and propelled them to megastarhood in the 1990s.
Alongside the Manchester Britpop superstars, he has managed or championed Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Happy Mondays, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub and countless others.
He also had success with his Poptones label, founded in 2000 and home to The Hives.
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