Anthea Turner’s new fiancé picks up litter as payback for taking magic mushrooms and biting a cop
ANTHEA Turner’s new fiancé sweeps the street yesterday as payback for his cop bite shame.
Tycoon Mark Armstrong, 54, was seen in south London sheepishly trawling roads picking up litter and wheeling a rubbish cart.
He went berserk after taking the hallucinogenic drug magic mushrooms – and ended up biting a cop – on New Year’s Eve.
The tycoon looked gutted as he donned a fluorescent orange jacket with the words ‘community payback’ on it.
He ambled along a gutter behind Vauxhall Station stooping to collect litter with other convicted offenders.
Dressed in a green parker coat, blue sweatshirt, jeans and loafers, and with his long hair loosely tied back, he looked humiliated and crestfallen.
A source said: “Mark attacked a policeman and is lucky to have dodged jail. He only undertakes 7.5 hours of payback a week, on Mondays, so it is taking forever to serve his suspended sentence.
“He has brought shame on himself and Anthea Turner but deserves to be highlighted for his appalling crime.”
‘APPALLING CRIME’
Armstrong was looking around seeing if anyone recognised him as he began his community service at 8.45am.
He hooked up with eight other convicts under a railway arch and looked sullen as he was told to put on his hi-vis vest.
Working alongside two other men, he dawdled along a road pausing occasionally to pick up rubbish, pulling a bin behind him.
A supervisor barked instructions and encouragement as they patrolled the local streets.
Others in his group smoked roll-up cigarettes as they undertook their community service.
The businessman was at his London home with friends when he took the illegal drug, a court heard earlier this year.
He felt strange, went outdoors but assaulted a passer-by who tried to help because he appeared distressed.
When police turned up at least one officer was bitten. The socialite admitted charges of assault and affray.
The court accepted his behaviour was out of character and he was handed a suspended six-week jail term – as well as 240 hours of community service work, a £115 victim surcharge and £85 costs, as well as a total of £550 compensation.
Former Blue Peter host Anthea, 59, is to walk down the aisle for a third time after getting engaged to Armstrong in September – just five months after they met.
The soon-to-be husband and wife duo were set up by her best friend Lizzie Cundy – and despite being nervous to meet face-to-face, the connection was instant.
NEWFOUND HAPPINESS
In May this year, Anthea told how she hadn’t given up on love and was looking for a man to share ‘great sex’ with following a ‘tough” divorce.
Her newfound happiness comes after she was left heartbroken as her relationship with ex Grant broke down.
Anthea and the businessman married in 2000 after first meeting in 1998, with them both leaving their respective partners.
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They first split in 2012 but briefly reconciled before separating for good in 2013, and were divorced in 2015 on the grounds of his adultery.
The marriage ended after she discovered that Grant, then 52, was having an affair with interior designer Zoe de Mallet Morgan – 24 at the time.
Bubbly blonde Anthea, who never lived down posing for a cheesy pic promoting a chocolate bar at their wedding, was also married to former DJ Peter Powell from 1990 until 1998.
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