Arrest warrant issued for FINLEY QUAYE

A warrant has been granted for the arrest of British reggae singer FINLEY QUAYE after he failed to appear for his “racially aggravated assault” sentencing.

The singer was due in Edinburgh before Sheriff Fiona Reith QC but did not appear. His sentence had been deferred because he had failed to pay his lawyer after claiming bankruptcy.

QUAYE had earlier admitted spitting on a woman's face and punching her in Edinburgh last October.

As reported by the BBC, the court heard that at 22:30 on 8 October 2011 a 36-year-old woman was waiting at a bus stop when QUAYE approached her and said: 

"Do you know that this country is a racist country?" He then spat on the woman's face and hit her.

The singer's former lawyer, Cameron Tait, said QUAYE had grown up in the Leith area and had come back to Edinburgh from London two months before the incident.

When people found out who he was he was getting hassled in the street and subjected to racial abuse.

On the day of the incident, he had taken Codeine and been drinking in a pub in Leith Walk. When he came out of the pub he claimed he had been racially abused and chased up the street.

QUAYE will be performing at the Jazz Café in Camden on 16 November with support from Italian-Canadian songwriter AKIM.

His new album 28th February Rd is set to be released on 20 October and will be followed by a US tour in March and European tour in April 2013.