Winehouse arrested over assault claim

LONDON (Reuters) - Soul singer Amy Winehouse was arrested on Friday on suspicion of assault after handing herself in at a police station to face questioning by detectives.

The Grammy Award-winning singer, whose battle against drug addiction has overshadowed her recording success, agreed voluntarily to attend the London police station, her spokesman said.

He said it related to an alleged assault in Camden, north London, earlier in the week.

Newspaper reports said the 24-year-old singer had punched a 38-year-old man in the street during a night out.

"A 24-year-old woman has been arrested for an alleged assault after attending a central London police station by appointment," a police spokesman said. "She is currently in custody."

Her police visit came on the same day her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, appeared in court charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and inflicting grievous bodily harm. He denies the charges.

Winehouse, said to be worth an estimated 10 million pounds in the latest Sunday Times Rich List, had been due to attend her husband's hearing, her spokesman said. She was not in court.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, Andrew Hough and Michael Holden; Editing by Stephen Addison and Richard Meares)