A music producer who threatened singer Charlotte Kelly when their marriage hit the rocks is facing jail.
Benjamin Bennett, 46, deluged the chart-topper with text messages and when she refused to open the door to him he told her: “I’m coming for you, mark my words.”
Bennett denied harassment but was found guilty by Hammersmith magistrates after they heard that Ms Kelly, who is blind, had been so scared she called the police.
The Coventry-born singer, once a member of Grammy winners Soul II Soul, topped the US dance charts in 1999 with her single Skin and was the writer of Roll Deep’s No 1 Good Times.
Bennett sent her 75 texts on November 5 last year then turned up at her home and began banging on the door.
Prosecutor Geeta Bakhshi said the couple, who married in summer 2013 and have a son together, had broken up and Bennett said he wanted to collect his belongings.
“Ms Kelly was not comfortable with this as there was a third person present and it was not convenient,” she said.
“He arrived at 10pm, pressed the buzzer and was also banging on the door. At midnight he called her on her mobile and she didn’t answer.
“She then received a call from an unknown number and answered it. He told her, ‘I’m coming for you, mark my words’.”
Bennett, from Mitcham, told the court he could not remember the day well but insisted that he had not planned to hurt Ms Kelly.
Magistrate Laura Roberts found him guilty and told him: “She repeatedly asked you not to contact her and said you were scaring her but you continue to do so. You frightened her enough she called the police.”
Bennett was freed on bail until April 7 when he will be sentenced for harassment without violence.
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