A couple dressed as Wonder Woman and Batgirl who got into a brawl at a City karaoke bar have been cleared of affray.
Joanna Downing, 39, and Miriam Ahmed, 38, donned superhero costumes for a day of drinking, games, and frivolity to celebrate their upcoming marriage.
But the day was soured when a row over Ms Ahmed’s sister being poked in the chest descended into a fight at the Karaoke Box in Farringdon.
Standing trial at Southwark crown court, Downing insisted she herself had come under attack when she demanded an apology from the man who delivered the poke.
Ahmed, an actress with Coronation Street and Skins on her CV, said she entered the fray to defend and rescue her wife.
At the end of a week-long trial, both women were found not guilty of affray.
The incident happened on July 24, 2021, when Ms Downing, dressed as Batgirl, and Ms Ahmed, in a Wonder Woman costume, were with friends in one of the karaoke singing booths.
They said a man had randomly approached Ms Ahmed’s sister, poked her in the chest, flicked her nose, and walked away laughing.
The women followed the man to a nearby singing booth, and after demanding an apology from him Ms Ahmed said the scene quickly turned into “sheer bedlam”.
Ms Downing was accused of attacking another woman, Lucy Ratcliff, by grabbing at her throat and pulling her hair.
But she told police her own hair was pulled in the melee as she was pulled into the room.
“I’m in this room, holding on to her for dear, dear life because my hair was being pulled. I was frightened I was going to be put to the ground. I was petrified of getting beaten up or kicked”, she said.
Ms Downing said she felt like she was being “flung around like a ragdoll”, the court heard.
Ms Ahmed faced claims that she had thrown punches in the brawl, but said she acted in defence of her wife.
“I was fearing for her safety and everything I did was in defence of her”, she said.
The court heard Ms Ahmed and Ms Downing’s group had been playing drinking games on a ‘hag do’ to celebrate their upcoming wedding, while the other group had earlier enjoyed a bottomless brunch with Prosecco.
Ahmed and Downing, who live in Hornchurch, both denied and were found not guilty of affray.
