John Galliano arrives in court in Paris. Photo: PA
A gaunt John Galliano apologised for his anti-Semitic behaviour at his hearing in Paris yesterday after a video of the incident in La Perle cocktail bar was shown to the court. According to The Daily Telegraph, the designer said, "I can see that this whole affair has caused a lot of upset and sadness. I apologise because the man you see up there (in a video) is not John Galliano".
Galliano also spoke of the death of his business partner and father, as well as the "lethal mixture" of Valium that he was taking before he went into rehab. "My body was becoming used to the pills, so my intake increased to an amount that I can't actually remember how many I was taking", he said in court.
Two witnesses defended Galliano by stating that they had not heard him say anything anti-Semitic throughout the dispute in the Paris bar. However, the designer will have to wait until 8 September before a verdict is reached.