Tulisa: The Price of Fame

This programme contains strong language

If you were to go back in time

and someone was to say to me three years ago,

"OK, Mazher Mahmood is going to be facing

"the same amount of time in jail that you were..."

You're guilty of lying to secure a scoop, what do you say to that?

"He's going to be the one on the firing line

"and the press are going to put him on front pages

"and destroy his reputation as they did to you..."

Did you lie to get a front-page headline? What do you say to that, Mr Mahmood? What's your reaction?

It's bizarre. It really is.

If the trial had gone ahead

and Mazher Mahmood's deceit and lying about what had

happened hadn't transpired, the jury

would have been presented with an account which implicated Tulisa

and which may well have resulted in her being convicted and sent to prison for a number of years,

and it's that reason why Perverting the Course of Justice

is such an important and serious offence.

He doesn't see any wrong in what he's doing.

Do you ever feel...a little bit uncomfortable in your own skin,

that this is the way you operate?

Not at all, I'm proud of what I do. I wouldn't do it otherwise.

I don't think without these serious consequences

that he is now on the receiving end of,

he would have ever stopped.

They're killing me.

They're killing me, like...

They're killing me.

I just want my life back.

He ruined me.

As soon as the story broke in June 2013,

Tulisa decided she wanted to record what was happening to her

and how it really feels to go through the ordeal of

an undercover tabloid sting.

To be arrested, charged and go through a court case.

They're crawling into my garden and filming me half-naked...

Tulisa filmed the press storm surrounding her from the moment

she found out she'd been entrapped by a tabloid newspaper...

At no point, at any time

when I got into this industry did I think some of this

shit would be happening.

That is not in the contract.

I'm not a drug dealer, I've never been a drug dealer,

I've never even taken cocaine.

..and allowed our cameras to follow her through the whole process

from start to finish.

I'm just a nervous wreck.

He circled the house, he went round the back

and he was watching me through my windows.

You can see I'm under 24-hour surveillance.

This would never have happened unless they made it happen.

They...made it...happen.

The thing that I'm most scared of is losing my money.

Then losing my security, then my mental stability.

That's the path that I see it.

That would be the downward spiral.

This is a really amazing house.

What do you think you'd have thought as a teenager

-if you'd come round here?

-I'd have been like,

"Wow! This is amazing. I'd love to live here one day."

And now that I live in it,

I spend most of my time not really

being able to enjoy it because I'm always thinking,

"Well, what if I lose everything?

"I'm not going to be able to live in a house like this, anyway."

So...it's like I'm living the life, and I don't enjoy it.

I'm guilty of that sometimes. I tell myself off for it,

and everyone else does, as well. They're like, "Just enjoy it!"

But what if it's all gone tomorrow?

The perks of fame turned into a nightmare

for the former X Factor judge.

I was approached by these two "film producers"

and their PA.

They wanted me for this massively lead role

in a Bollywood/Hollywood production.

There were first-class flights to Vegas, two hotel suites.

All in all, in the end, I was offered anything between

3 to 3.5 mil for this movie role.

I'm thinking, "Wow, this is a dream come true."

The man at the centre of the sting was

the infamous "Fake Sheikh" Mazher Mahmood,

who posed as Bollywood film producer Samir Khan to entrap Tulisa.

He's only ever done one television interview,

here with the BBC journalist Emily Maitlis,

where he justifies his infamous techniques.

The point of entrapment comes up time and time again,

and nothing annoys me more than that.

I mean, you're a top TV presenter,

is there any way I could persuade you to supply me with cocaine?

Is there any way at all, Emily? We only expose people

who are involved in criminal wrongdoing and moral wrongdoing.

Do you ever feel a little bit uncomfortable in your own skin

that this is the way you operate?

Not at all. I'm proud of what I do. I wouldn't do it otherwise.

Mazher Mahmood set his sights on Tulisa as his next

high-profile target.

He approached her and told her he could make her

a movie star, that she could work with Leonardo DiCaprio,

that he would make her rich and that she would win awards.

No expense was spared, and as the weeks passed, and as she was flown

first class to a meeting in Las Vegas, Tulisa became more and more

convinced that she was being offered something genuine and extraordinary.

I was enraged at myself for being that stupid.

But to be fair,

I wasn't too enraged, and the reason why was

because the lengths that they went to were so extreme,

I don't think there's many people that wouldn't have believed it.

The meetings continued back in London.

Scripts were alluded to and contracts

were to be drawn up for this life-changing movie role.

Tulisa and her PA Gareth were treated like VIPs.

The Sun on Sunday went to great lengths to convince them

that the offer that was being made was genuine,

and Tulisa thought that she would soon be

a multi-million-pound movie star.

Tulisa was taken in by Mr Mahmood

and she believed that her chances of getting the part

in the movie would be boosted if she made herself out to be a

streetwise woman, familiar with and to some extent involved in drugs.

OK, the story outline, very briefly,

is we've got an English girl...

-Mm-hmm.

-Kind of...from...

-Are we talking posh, posh British?

-No.

Normal accent? Oh, great.

We want somebody from kind of, er...almost your accent.

-We want a kind of a...somebody from....

-Oh, I can do Cockney.

-..kind of very low background.

-Perfect!

-LAUGHTER

-Ta-da!

We want almost a bad girl.

A bit ghetto, a bit ghetto.

Yeah. That kind of...

-That kind of...

-Now I get it!

Now it makes complete sense!

Don't be fooled by the pretty dress.

Now I completely get it.

We met them in Vegas, LA,

in London...

so people might think, "Oh, she's being naive,

"she's being stupid", yeah, but there's

phone calls in Vegas,

Australia, St Tropez,

um, London, Scotland, Boston.

There was phone calls made -

that I made - to hotel rooms around the world to speak to these guys.

On the 23rd of May, 2013,

the undercover journalist at the centre of the sting -

who Tulisa still believed to be top Bollywood film producer Samir Khan

and who, she believed, was about to change her life - asked Tulisa

if she had the number of someone that could supply him with cocaine.

According to the Sun's version of events, Mazher Mahmood

met Tulisa's contact at The Dorchester hotel on Park Lane

and purchased £820 worth of cocaine -

and secretly filmed the whole encounter.

Within days, Tulisa was on the front page of every tabloid newspaper

and was headline news.

Her world fell apart in an instant.

There was no film.

No movie role.

No £3.5 million contract.

And the Bollywood super-producer Samir Khan was in fact

Mazher Mahmood, an undercover journalist.

It had all been a con,

an elaborate sting.

A sting that Tulisa fell for

hook, line and sinker.

Tell me what Tulisa was like when she found out what had happened.

Erm...

When I first... I didn't know how to tell her at first.

But when I finally did...

I don't know, it was a weird reaction, wasn't it?

-I just went, "I'm

-BLEEP"

She just...

I don't think it hit her, but at the same time I think it did.

It was just weird. The whole thing was a blur.

I remember how I felt and thinking,

"God knows how SHE must feel."

But she was quite strong initially

and then, the more it started to unravel,

the more it felt that everything was just...

..going to get really big,

and that's when you broke down, didn't you?

DOOR SLAMS >

SHE SNIFFS

So...

..here I am again.

I actually don't even know what to say any more.

And I'm filming this because...

..I'm so sick of people not knowing what is really going on.

You know, I act like I'm strong, but I'm really not in the slightest.

Part of me's strong.

I can put up with things, and I can pick myself up,

and I can move on, but inside, I am one of the most vulnerable...

people you'll ever meet.

And I genuinely suffer from a LOT of depression.

And it's moments like this that send me under.

I really just want it all to end.

I don't want to be this person any more.

I don't want to be famous any more.

-Oh...

-How can someone hate someone so young?!

Oh, fucking hell!

It's not nice.

As the story broke, Tulisa locked herself in her house with her mates.

The house was surrounded by paparazzi and television news crews.

'Even if any criminal proceedings don't come to anything,

'or whatever happens with criminal proceedings,

'it seems already that these allegations

'could end up costing the singer quite a bit of money.'

Overnight...the whole thing.

They can fucking have it back

and shove it up their arse-crack as far as I'm concerned.

At no point, at any time when I got into the industry,

did I think some of this shit would be happening,

THAT is NOT in the contract.

No.

It's not fucking on.

They want me to have a breakdown.

They want me to shave my hair off, they want me to, um...

..maybe top myself.

-Oh, fuck that!

-They would be happy. They would be buzzing.

The Sun run with this today.

"'We will arrest Tulisa,' say cops.

"Star to be quizzed over cocaine deal."

Quite aggressive, yeah? Big deal.

If Tulisa is charged and found guilty by a jury

for being concerned with the supply of a class-A drug,

it would certainly carry a custodial sentence.

-IN GEORDIE ACCENT:

-Day two in the big media destruction house.

Tulisa is still dealing with the recent news

that she is front page of The Sun after deep, intense entrapment.

BIRDSONG

Pretty much, you know...

every...person...

most people... Most people that I've got close to in my life

have f'd me over.

When the tape came out, I just felt like I'd lost control again.

I was like, "No, this isn't what I want to be portrayed as.

"This isn't what I'm about."

And just afterwards, trying to go back out there.

I remember it was the thought of facing an audience,

a crowd,

and to sit there, and even though I'm a judge,

I'm being judged more than the contestants.

The judges get judged the most.

So...

I just found it so hard to face people again.

Some people might not think that it's necessarily such a bad thing.

Mm, well, I think it's an absolute violation of...

..of my human rights.

Of me as a person. I think it's absolutely disgusting.

And he knew it, as well.

Do you think the person responsible for it

knew how much it would upset you?

Yeah. He knew. He wanted... He wanted to cause that damage.

He didn't like me very much.

DOG BARKS IN BACKGROUND

Have you thought about the fact that they might send you to prison?

I've thought about it as much as I think I need to.

But...

that's like a worst-case scenario. But...

..I just have to, like, get on with it.

Three days after the story broke,

Tulisa was driven to the police station,

where she was arrested, interviewed and released on bail.

That night, Tulisa was finding it hard to cope.

She didn't know how far this was going to go.

Would charges even be pressed?

And if so, when would she find out?

On top of which, she was trying to cope with

being at the centre of a media firestorm.

Andrew, yeah.

What's he saying?

The paps are running round the back of my house into the bushes

and they're filming me walking around my bedroom.

It's not even legal.

She decided to leave and go up to Manchester.

Once I'm in Manchester, no-one's finding me. No-one.

She hid under a blanket in the back of her car to avoid the press.

Fuckers!

Tulisa was bailed to return to the police station

on the 29th of July to be charged with

the single allegation of

being concerned in the supply of class-A drugs.

This is the legal wording for fixing a drug deal.

But it's been delayed and she still doesn't know

whether she's going to be charged or not.

A month passes, and Tulisa is still waiting to hear

whether she will be officially charged.

All of her work is on hold and she has been forced to move out

of her grand Hertfordshire mansion to a small flat in north London.

So right now I am here.

I've had to leave the little white mansion

because for about three weeks I was being

what I would call "stalked".

24-hour surveillance, spied on by different groups of people,

which I'm not sure if they're connected.

And are you going to sell that house?

I am going to sell that house. I'm going to have to.

After everything that's happened, I don't feel safe there at all.

I don't even want to...

I don't even want to drive back there to pick up my stuff

because I'm afraid that someone will follow me and find me here.

How have your finances been through what's been happening?

Um, basically...

..my finances.

I'm OK. This is my issue, is that all of my endorsements

and where most of my money comes from, which is my branding,

has been frozen until we find out what's going on with the case.

If I sell the house, I'll be in a brilliant financial position.

To be able to afford to live.

Without even my assets being unfrozen.

And that would be a great sense of relief, I'd imagine?

That would be amazing. But, you know, we can hope for the best,

but you have to always prepare for the worst

and look at what you've got

and think worst-case scenario, best-case scenario.

Just make sure you've got a plan. But I'm OK.

Louboutins... My new Loubous.

You wore them home?

This afternoon, Tulisa is travelling in to

central London for an audition for a part in an American sitcom.

Thanks.

-Please, don't film my feet!

-Sorry.

-Please, don't.

It's very unnecessary to see my Monster-Munch toes.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

So, right now we're going to, um...

basically my British acting agent's office

to film a video audition

for a new American series on HBO...

um, for the lead role.

Are you nervous?

No. Not right now, no.

There's nothing to be nervous about,

because it's like the easiest form of audition

because you can take as many takes as you want

and send it over to them.

So you're not under pressure, or have one shot when you walk in with

the casting director, so I'm quite relaxed.

And how come you're doing it in London?

I'm doing it in London because I'm not allowed in America

because I'm on bail for a drugs-related charge

so I can't...can't go there at the minute.

I'll read it back to you.

-AMERICAN ACCENT:

-"Important to your sister

"you come to the Hamptons' tonight.

"Car picking you up from your house at 3pm.

"Now should I say, 'LOVE, Mom' or just 'from'?'

"We got disconnected. No, she was so nice."

-NORMAL ACCENT:

-And then I just burst into tears. It's not a lot, really.

Sorry, I went out of character for a moment.

-AMERICAN ACCENT:

-It's not a lot, really.

I've got to, like, continuously talk like this for the whole journey

so that I get into the... into the motion of, you know,

speaking with an American accent.

Get in the moment so that, when I go in there,

it just comes naturally and there's no slip-ups.

Don't want to hear any of that British accent slipping though,

otherwise you're in trouble.

But when they arrive at her agent's offices,

Tulisa spots a car with blacked-out windows

that she saw parked outside her flat this morning.

Can I get out? I'm going to see who the fuck it is.

-That's the car that was outside my house.

-That definitely is the reg?

100%, that's the reg number.

They've found us and why is he already outside?

He's already outside the destination of where we're going.

What does that tell you?

Somebody from the inside has tipped him off.

-You all right there?

-Yeah, what's up with you, pal?

-Huh?

-What's up with you?

-No, I'm just asking, are you waiting for someone?

-No. Not you.

-You're not? You're not waiting for no-one, no?

-No

-OK, cool.

-What's the issue?

-Pardon?

-What's the issue?

-I'm asking cos I thought I saw you

outside our house earlier. I wanted to make sure.

Who the fuck are you, coming up to my motor, pal?

-I'm just asking you who you are.

-Jog on.

-Who the fuck are YOU? Jog on.

-Right.

He's got walkie-talkies in the car.

He's fucking aggressive, he's got walkie-talkies.

Drew, he's got walkie-talkies, I don't care if he's a pap.

Who are you talking to on walkie-talkies?

And he's aggressive, little shit-bag.

-I recognise him, anyway.

-I've never seen him before.

-Oh, I 100% recognise him.

-Right. Let's just get her in.

-Drew, keep an eye on him.

-I will.

-Just see what he does.

I might go and talk to him.

No, don't go and talk to him. Please, Drew, not on camera.

-I won't.

-Don't go near that shit.

He was outside my house,

so how did he know the destination before I've got there?

I know. It's a different guy, though. That wasn't the guy. Same car.

So I'm going to try and see what he's doing now. You go through

with George and Alex and let me deal with this with the police.

-Hi, are you all right?

-Hi. Sorry.

-That's all right. How are you?

-Can I get you anything?

Have you got any Coca-Cola?

I can get some, if that's what you want? Yeah, no problem.

How's it going?

This is what is, like, happening to me now, 24/7.

These... Yeah, look.

These scenarios like, and I'm just a nervous wreck

because I'm just panicking every five minutes

because there's people... This guy was circling my house this morning.

This car. Now there's a different driver with walkie-talkies in it

already at the destination that I'm going to before I've even got there.

So this is a perfect example.

This is the first time you've filmed me in however long,

you can see I'm under 24-hour surveillance. How do they know

where I'm going? Why have they got walkie-talkies?

Why are they changing drivers? I feel like I'm being bugged.

Luckily I've taken the number plate down this morning of the car

so I know that it's them. So obviously as soon as I've...

Keeping my eyes peeled, as soon as I've seen that reg,

I've gone, "That's the car that was outside my house this morning."

And he's not a pap cos he would've waited outside my house.

He circled the house.

He went round the back and he was watching me through my windows

and then he drove off again and then came back...

and waited outside the front.

Wound up by what has just happened,

Tulisa feels unable to go through with the audition.

Come on. Let's get you home. Let's get out of here.

Right. Don't follow me out into the street,

cos if they are still out there they're going to photograph...

I've been so...such a nervous wreck and on edge that I just literally

walked in there to read my lines and just...my mind just went blank.

So I just need to...

I can't do it right now.

I can't do the audition because my head's just...

I can't concentrate.

I can't think of anything other than what's going on.

So, no audition.

Just another day of police, drama and I'm on my way home.

It's now December. Six months have passed

while she has been waiting and waiting

to find out what's going to happen to her,

and Tulisa has just received

the devastating news that she WILL be charged the following day.

I'm going to go to the police station on Monday.

And there's no emotions to describe how I feel.

My life is ruined. It's over.

I feel like my whole world is falling apart.

I'm going to lose everything.

Everything I've built.

I just wanted to be a...person and to make music and to...

..just live

and love and be loved.

And that is all that I wanted

and now it's gone.

They've fucked me up good and proper.

They're killing me.

They're killing me, it's like...

They're fucking killing me.

I just want my life back.

They've ruined me.

This would never have happened unless they created the situation.

They MADE it happen.

This would NEVER have happened unless they MADE it happen.

THEY MADE IT HAPPEN.

It's evil. It's wrong.

Just been...pretty much an emotional wreck the whole night.

There were hours of drama.

Dappy come round and there was, like, emotional breakdowns

and...screaming and...

..I had had a drink, so everything felt...

..even more intensified.

Like I say, I always get my times when I feel like I want to give up,

but I've never felt it as strongly as the other day

when I found out this.

I really, like, in my mind,

was just like, "What's the point? What is the point?

"I just can't... I just don't have the energy any more to do this.

"Even if I get through it, then what?

"I'm just going to be drained as a person.

"I'm going to be numb by the end of this.

"I don't know how much of me I'm going to have left."

And I was like...just...

"Shall I just end it? Shall I just get on with it

"and just never have to feel like this ever again?"

-Do you mean kill yourself?

-Yeah.

I'll just be honest. I don't care, yeah.

OK - are you ready, T?

He said what's going to happen, he said he's going to get there

for about 20 past.

He'll go in, get it all registered and whatnot.

Let us know what paps and media are there.

You pull up. He wants me to walk you in.

He'll then take you to the custody suite

where they're going to...basically rebook you in again.

You might go to a cell, you might not,

you might just stay in the custody thing

and then they'll formally charge you there.

And then he'll read a statement. I'll wait in reception for you.

You'll come out about an hour later into reception, leave

and he'll read a statement if anyone's out there

and then we'll come back here.

He wanted a meeting afterwards, but I said no.

Do you know what? Let's just get in the car.

I'm a bit worried, you know, Gareth. I'm worried that...

You know when I get my leg-shake thing,

when I get nervous and I feel sick,

cos I'm in heels, I'm worried that I'm going to...

I'll hold your hand.

I'm going to need someone to link me, cos I'm going to be shaking.

-Ben said I can walk in with you, yeah?

-Mm-hm.

I can wait in reception or come back to the car.

I can do whatever I want, but I can go as far as reception.

I'm allowed to take you in and pick you up again.

I'm just worried about standing on the steps.

That's cool. You can lean on me.

My legs are going to shake

so I'm going to need to hold someone.

Bleurgh...

I feel sick.

Tulisa desperately wants to avoid the paparazzi today,

so Gareth has leaked information

sending the press to the wrong police station -

a strategy that has worked

as there are no photographers or camera crews

when they arrive at Charing Cross.

OK...

-In a bit, guys.

-Good luck. See you soon.

So what happened in there, did you just take her in?

Yeah, I just took her in. Ben's briefing her

and then they'll take her through.

Weird feeling.

Today's been building up for so many months.

Yeah - it's, like, six months

and then, like, this decision changes everything

for the next 12 months to 18,

I guess, realistically.

I know everyone wants to play it down, but...

It's time to get fighting!

(Just get me in the car, Drew.

(Get me in the car.)

You go first - actually...

What happened in there? Talk us through it.

It was very different from the first time that I went in.

Like, obviously, the first time, the police were really nice,

but this time, they were, like, really accommodating.

They didn't keep me waiting long.

They just brought me in and sat me down, then stood up.

The officers were really sympathetic,

very nice to me.

They seemed as if they didn't want to be doing what they had to do.

Um...

One of them even said, "Good luck. I hope it all goes well."

-What's the process? Do they read out what the charge is?

-Yes.

-Were you there with her?

-Yes.

So it's a completely dictated process with no latitude.

They have to go through a prescribed series of questions

and get to the end of it and read the charge

and then ask Tulisa if she wanted - as they would anybody -

ask her if she wanted to say anything.

And did you say anything?

No.

Today, Tulisa has to appear at Southwark Crown Court

and the media have turned out in force.

You've been asked to get out of the road.

Fun, fun, fun.

So you're just going to get out of the car

-and walk straight into court?

-Mm-hm.

-And just ignore all the...?

-Mm-hm.

-Fuck!

-Oh...

-Shit.

-Hundreds of them.

DREW: It's nice they all came out, isn't it?

Maybe I should take my gum out.

-Where am I going to put it?

-Stop, Drew.

Yeah, I'm going to stop.

Yeah. Here. Just here.

Yeah. Cool.

You get out first, then I'll open the door.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

-INTERVIEWER: Good luck.

-Thank you.

REPORTER: Tulisa?

REPORTER: Tulisa?

Today, Tulisa appeared at Southwark Crown Court

in connection with a serious allegation,

which is being concerned in the supply of drugs.

Tulisa is...

Tulisa is not guilty of this or any other offence

and is looking forward to giving her account to a jury.

That trial will take place in July and will reveal the full extent

of the role played by Mazher Mahmood of the Sunday Sun.

We're three weeks away from the hearing

at which we will try and stop the trial,

and if that hearing is unsuccessful, we're a month and a half away

from the trial itself.

So it's been a long run for me

and I imagine an even longer and harder run for Tulisa.

I'm at that kind of numb stage where I'm just a bit..."meh."

I just want it over with.

My line at the minute is "Two months. Two months to go.

"Two months, and no matter what, it's all going to be over.

"If I've done a year of it, I can do two months."

Two months is nothing.

What are the kind of pressures and challenges and difficulties

that it's like to be a defendant?

The honest answer is I think it's probably one of,

if not the most difficult experiences

that anybody in their life will encounter.

The first thing is for...

People who are defendants are, to a large extent,

locked into a system over which they have no control.

There is likely to be a trial, they have to come to court.

They have to endure the entirety of whatever aspect of their life

is, in issue, being explored in microcosmic detail.

Are you managing to get much sleep?

No. Oh, my God, my sleep is horrific at the moment.

Literally, the last three nights, I went to bed at, like, 6.30am.

Every night.

I just can't...can't sleep.

And obviously, it's annoying, because...when you try to explain

to people that you're an insomniac,

they're like, "OK, just take a sleeping pill", but...

You know, how often?

I can't take a sleeping pill

every time I have a night where I can't sleep,

because it's most nights.

So I tend to just reserve, you know, sleeping pills for court dates

and things like that where I HAVE to sleep.

Um...so the rest of the time, I just sort of deal with it.

There's almost the feeling that they've become a spectator

in a part of their own life,

which is a very odd sensation to have -

to listen, potentially, to days and days,

weeks and weeks of evidence given by other people

and argued about by lawyers in wigs and gowns

about what you did or you didn't do or what you did or you didn't say,

is a really, I would have thought - I've not been in this position -

a frustrating, difficult, upsetting and emotionally draining experience.

So, T, I know you've been seeing Jane with Gareth

quite a lot in terms of getting ready for the hearing coming up

both tomorrow, later in June and July

and I think it might be useful just to have a recap as to where we are.

You were set up and entrapped.

Entrapment is not a defence

to a criminal charge, as we've discussed before.

But a judge is entitled to stop the proceedings

if he or she feels that...

It's an abuse of the justice system?

Well, it's an abuse of the justice system, in the widest sense.

Essentially, what we have to demonstrate

is that this was crime manufactured

by Mahmood and the Sun newspaper.

Putting it another way, the current position is this -

that a police officer can't, as a matter of law,

try and persuade someone to commit a criminal offence

-and then prosecute them.

-Yeah.

A journalist, like Mahmood,

COULD persuade somebody to commit an offence and then prosecute them -

we're saying that does not make sense.

That is fundamentally an unfair balancing act

and if it's wrong for police officers

to try and persuade people to commit crime,

it must be wrong for journalists

to try and persuade them to commit offences

and if it's wrong,

then your prosecution...against you shouldn't continue.

And obviously, we'll be drawing from the facts of your case -

the whole business of you being lured to Las Vegas, um,

the carrot of the 3.5 million,

the carrot of the major part in the film...um...

Winning an Oscar.

Winning an Oscar.

-Our position is...

-Leonardo.

Leonardo Di Caprio.

Childhood crushes - "I did it all for Leo!"

-That's not a defence, either!

-I know.

But we're saying that all of this is just a...

You were lured into an irresistible situation.

Although, of course, we hotly deny any involvement

in any drugs transaction.

But just even the stuff that was said

that was out of character, that they printed -

it's the whole defamation of character.

It will all form part of the abuse.

What's in your... What's in Honest about you and drugs?

That I used to smoke weed.

-But that's it?

-Yeah.

-Have you read yet?

-Yeah, I've read it.

Because I don't want them to use that as their source.

Weed and taking and selling cocaine

is a long way off smoking a bit of weed.

I even say in the book that I gave it up.

I think he says that he was contacted by someone.

-So he can't...

-He can't change it.

-It can't be, "I read Honest."

-No.

Let's just work through this, then.

-Let's just imagine that we don't win at the abuse.

-Yeah.

We then move onto the trial.

And then we've got effectively... got about three weeks.

A lot of work has happened in preparation for the trial already.

Then you've got a three-week run to get ready for the trial.

Today is the final day of the abuse of process hearing.

This is Tulisa's legal team's final attempt

to try and stop the case going to a full jury trial.

The judge took the view

that there was insufficient evidence

of gross misconduct at that stage

and therefore the judge's ruling

was that the case should be tried by a jury

and that Tulisa could have a fair trial.

Finally, a year after being arrested in the summer of 2013,

Tulisa's trial is about to begin.

How long do you think the trial could last?

The trial could last up to a month.

It's going to be really bad.

How do you feel about that?

It's just like the long-term thought of like, every day, doing it.

I'm scared for myself, I'm scared for myself. Oh...

But when you get out of the car today,

and all those paps take photos of you striding in,

you're going to have to look kind of tough and steely.

No matter what face I pull, they'll always find a problem with it.

Because if I smile, then they'll be like,

"Oh, look, she thinks she's having a whale of a time,

"she doesn't care about the trial"

cos someone cracked one joke

that made me just go like...that for a second.

I'm not allowed to live.

-Until this is over, and then you can.

-Yeah.

It's alleged Tulisa told the Sun on Sunday reporter

Mazher Mahmood, also known as the "Fake Sheikh",

that she could arrange for him to buy cocaine...

Tulisa!

Here, the former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos

went on trial today over allegations

she was involved in supplying cocaine to an undercover reporter.

The trial begins with the prosecution setting out

the case against Tulisa and they pull no punches.

The press coverage paints Tulisa as a drugs fixer

and her version of events is hotly contested.

A few days in, Tulisa is feeling depressed.

The first day, I feel like I went in and...

I don't know, I kept saying I was trying to be positive,

so I'd built myself up to be positive.

So, I don't know why but, obviously,

a part of me expected some positivity from it,

do you know what I mean? I thought if anything,

it would start good and get worse if there was going to be...

hard times ahead, but it started off really bad.

That was the point when I went on such a low on the second day

that when I was driving to court,

in my head, I was like...

I really got the feeling the judge didn't like me one bit.

And I just thought, "If I was to be found guilty,

"I'm definitely going to prison."

It felt like it was happening and everything felt really bad.

And I was like, "They've got me, good and proper."

They have fully finished me off and set me up and I was just like,

I don't know.

I got myself in that mindframe, preparing for the worst,

cos that's what it's felt like.

How was it when Maz Mahmood gave evidence?

I read in the paper

that you asked to move so that you could be in his eyeline.

Yeah. When he...

I wanted to look at him. I wanted...

I wanted him to...

I don't know what I wanted. I just...

For me, it was like facing him, just facing him,

showing him that I'm not scared.

Day after day, Tulisa makes the same long car journey across London.

And as the days pass,

it looks more and more likely she could be facing prison.

But on day four of the trial, there's a dramatic turnaround.

Mazher Mahmood gave evidence

and he was cross-examined over the period of a day.

We knew that there were serious question marks over his dealings

with a statement from his driver

and the judge's view was that Mr Mahmood had lied about having

seen that statement and that there was an inference

that pressure had been put upon the driver to change his statement

and those were the circumstances in which

the judge decided that the case should be stopped.

The media and the wider public are completely unaware

of what's about to happen.

Everyone believes that the trial is entering its second week

and will continue for several weeks to come.

In fact, Tulisa knows that due to the lie Mazher Mahmood

told in court a few days earlier,

her nightmare ordeal is coming to a sudden and very welcome conclusion.

So, at the end of last week, the judge said something in court

that sounded like it was making him reconsider the whole case.

-Mm-hm.

-And it appears that he's been persuaded

-that Mazher Mahmood lied under oath to the judge.

-Mm-hm.

He knew a couple of weeks ago in the abuse trial,

he said one thing and he was 100% sure on what he said

and then a couple of weeks later,

he says the same thing

and then when faced with evidence to show otherwise,

he tries to change his story and say, "Oh, I forgot",

and thank God, even the prosecution and the judge were like,

"That's not good enough, you're lying.

"You're sitting here lying."

And I think the judge was pretty insulted.

He's stood up there and lied to his face about serious stuff.

He got one of his own team to change their statement

because a member of his own team,

his story complied with my story

and it confirmed everything that I was saying,

that it was an act. You know, I was auditioning.

Basically, as soon as I left the hotel,

after all the rubbish I was talking,

I went in the car and became completely anti-drugs

and was speaking about a situation and scenario

and in the complete opposite way and tone.

And the driver heard all of that and he knew what was going on

and so, luckily, he confirmed that in a statement,

until Mahmood obviously got hold of him,

because, like I said, when he wants a story to stick,

it has to stick,

got hold of him and forced him to change his statement.

What was your worst fear if you had been found guilty?

My worst fear if I was found guilty...

Funnily enough, most people would think it'd be going to prison.

It wasn't. It was losing my career.

I'd got to the point where I was like,

"I can accept prison, I can handle prison."

It's when I come out.

It's having my life taken away from me, my livelihood, my job.

Everything I've worked for from the age of 11 years old.

What have you learned from all of this? Your year of hell?

Oh, God, I've learned so many lessons.

It really is my year of enlightenment.

I feel like, um...

-Are you feeling older?

-Yeah.

I feel like...

I feel like a woman now.

This extraordinary turn of events was highlighted by the judge

as he explained the situation to the jury.

He said...

Mazher Mahmood vehemently denies any duplicity in his work.

In a statement, the Sun said...

Tulisa!

Let me be perfectly clear.

I have never dealt drugs

and never been involved in taking or dealing cocaine.

This whole case was a horrific and disgusting entrapment

by Mazher Mahmood and the Sun on Sunday newspaper.

Oh, my God.

I am so happy.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

I can't actually believe it's over. I can't believe it's over.

-PHONE RINGS

-'Hello?'

Mummy.

'Hello, yes, how are you?'

It's over.

'I know, sweetheart. I know, isn't that fantastic?'

It's amazing.

'You've done so well.'

TULISA SNIFFLES

'You're very strong, you're a strong girl.'

Thanks to you.

'I love you.

'I love you, sweetheart.'

I love you, too.

'I know, I love you, too, precious.

'Well done, I've been thinking of you all the time.'

'I really have. I love you so.'

-I love you, Mummy.

-'It's OK.'

'Have a good cry.'

'It's all right, sweetheart, Mummy's here.

'Mummy's here. I'm right with you.'

I was so scared, Mummy.

'I know you were, honey.

'I know you were scared, I know.'

'It was horrible, I know.'

'I know, I know, I was thinking of you all the time.'

'Very, very frightening. It was horrible.'

'I know...'

The way the case came to an end so suddenly

means that justice was really done

in a moment,

and for that reason, the staggering circumstances,

the speed with which such a powerful witness collapsed

and took with him such an important element

of the journalistic approach in this country

means that the case is one that can never be forgotten.

Because at the moment his evidence collapsed,

the case against Tulisa collapsed.

In the same moment, Mahmood began the journey to being convicted

and she commenced the journey out of the dock

and in that very same moment, also,

the face of investigative journalism in Great Britain changed.

It's the barrister in the court room who's going to win your case.

You can have the best legal team in the world behind the scenes,

but it's the barrister who's got to be quick on his feet,

the barrister who's got to stand up in that court room.

Jeremy Dein's tactics had Mazher Mahmood fall on his own sword

when he was revealed as a liar.

We, as a defence team,

firmly believed, despite a superficially strong prosecution

case being put together,

that the prosecution case was as fake as the Fake Sheikh himself.

And with that momentum, we worked tirelessly to get the result we did

and fortunately, we did manage to succeed in that objective.

Well, I'd say that's the end of that story,

but the beginning for me,

because that's the point that it's really...closed that chapter.

I don't think I could ever fully,

FULLY let it go,

even if I kept it in the back of my mind and it was subconscious,

I'd still... Part of me would have just really felt that injustice.

Um, but...now,

there's nothing for me to hold on to, that's it,

it's done a full circle -

what goes around comes around,

it couldn't ever be more relevant. Karma.

She's in a happy place, I think, and she's grown up massively.

And we could be angry, she could be bitter... But she's not,

she's...

She's in a good place.

A really good place.

You!