Britney SpearsTony Barretto, the ’surprise witness’ in the Britney Spears/Kevin Federline custody case, has claimed Britney nearly overdosed before her first comeback show, and drinks and takes drugs around her children.

Speaking to the News of the World, Tony explained that he decided to speak out against his former employer because she is “out of control and needs help.”

“I have done this for her children. She’s not a good mother. She has mental problems. With her drug and booze issues, her home is no place for kids to be raised.”

Tony worked for the singer for two months after she left rehab in March and he recalls that she nearly overdosed after taking drugs with rehab-fling Howie Day - just hours before her comeback performance at the House of Blues as “the M&Ms”.

Tony, another bodyguard and Britney’s then assistant, cousin Alli Sims were called to her room at the Mondrian Hotel and when they arrived, found the suite trashed: “The entire place was littered with empty beer bottles and liquor bottles, small glasses of ice and cigarette butts everywhere.”

“On the surface of the dresser, I could see mounds of white powder and a straw on top. I suspected it was cocaine or powdered methamphetamines.”

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Britney was completely out of it. We thought she’d overdosed. She was distraught, crying. Her skin was all waxy. She looked so ill. We tried to speak to her. My fellow bodyguard and Alli were so worried they wanted to get hold of a medic to detoxify her. We were panicking. We thought she was going to die.

“There was talk about where to put the detox line it was that serious - through her arm, which would make fans think she’d been injecting, or through her neck. It was very distressing.”

“Eventually we decided to get her out of there. We grabbed her and took her downstairs. All the time all she could say was, ‘I don’t feel good’. In the car she was really odd. She kept asking for the air con to be turned up because she was sweating so much.”

“Somehow, we managed to get her to the gig and on stage in time. When she started singing she was staring intensely at me. She was out of it. I kept telling the other guard she needed help but he said she’ll get you if that’s the case.”

“On the way home, she was making up strange songs and singing them in a weird voice. Then she wound down the window and started yelling, ‘I’m a rock star. I’m a rock star’.”

Tony added that he saw Britney taking drugs on a number of occasions but it was when she was around her sons Sean and Jayden that it worried him the most: “There were times when Britney appeared to be under the influence near them. It was frightening.”

“I was worried about the children due to her erratic behaviour. She wouldn’t talk to them at all and she would be in her own world. I remember being in the hallway, and she was at the other end looking completely out of it. She would be nervously chewing her fingernails and babbling away. We’d have to look after the kids while she went through her strange behaviour.”

“I know enough about drugs to know she was not being the normal Britney.”

And it wasn’t just drugs: “She has a whiskey stash in her pantry - and even if the children are close by, that doesn’t stop her drinking. After rehab she didn’t want people to see her boozing. So in clubs she’d have Jack Daniels and coke in polystyrene cups so it would look like coffee.”

“Britney does love her kids but she is a fickle mum. When the kids are happy, she’s happy. When they’re crying or unwell, she’s not sure what to do.”

“She speaks to them in weird, creepy, baby voices, in made-up languages, which they just don’t get. All it does is unsettle, upset and scare them. Often she would scream and cry uncontrollably. Imagine what that is like for young children.”

“When they are unwell, her answer is: ‘Give the baby a bottle of medicine.’ I’ve never seen her deal with them like a full, attentive mum.”

“She has mental problems, and they are not helped by her taking drugs and alcohol. Her children need attention, and Britney doesn’t appear to be willing to give them that at the moment.”

“She can’t cope with being a mother, as she has such a low boredom threshold. With her drug and booze issues, her home is no place for children to be raised.”

“Britney needs to take hold of her life again and realise that her children are much more important than partying and dangerous pastimes. I hope this will be wake up call to her - I like Britney and I want her to be a success and good mum.”