Amy Winehouse needs to be sectioned, says dad Mitch Winehouse

Just a day after she was released from police custody with a formal caution, Amy Winehouse’s dad has said he thinks she should be locked up again - for her mental health.

Amy was held in police custody over Friday night after being arrested for “common assault” that afternoon. She had voluntarily submitted herself for questioning following an incident in the early hours of Wednesday morning but was deemed unfit to be interviewed when she arrived at Holborn police station late on Friday afternoon.

She was held in a cell at the station overnight until a doctor gave the go-ahead for her to be questioned and was later released with the formal caution.

Mitch Winehouse has now told the News of the World though that he believes she needs to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act because “the situation is getting out of control”: “I want her sectioned. I want her off the street.”

“I don’t think being [in rehab] for six weeks is going to cure her problems. I think it needs far more radical measures. We will take the bull by the horns and deal with it.”

“I’ve been on the phone to Amy’s manager in Los Angeles and he’s starting things rolling. They are going to be speaking to doctors, psychologists and everything else.”

“I want Amy to be somewhere where she will be safe and where no harm can come to her. Obviously as her dad I will try and do what’s best for her. Unfortunately, what I think is best for Amy and what she thinks is best for her are two different things. And it might be that other parties might need to be involved.”

He added though that he realises an involuntary commitment will only work in the long run if Amy wants to change her life around too: “I don’t feel Amy is beyond help. But unless she wants it, you can’t force her to do anything against her will.”

“Some of the things that Amy has articulated over the last weeks were that she wanted help. That’s the first time she has spoken about it. But wanting it and actually doing it are two different things.”

Amy’s mum Janis Winehouse believes that Amy’s rumoured new boyfriend Alex Haines may give the singer the impetus to get better.

She told the Sunday Mirror: “I’ve spoken to Alex a couple of times over the phone, but this was the first time I’d actually met him. He’s a lovely boy - gentle and sweet. He really looked after Amy, popping out to buy cigarettes, papers, anything she wanted.”

“He works for her manager so their relationship was professional to begin with but, if they’ve made something of it, I’m thrilled.”

“[Husband Blake Fielder-Civil] set her down the wrong path - drugs and self-harm. She needs a man she can depend on, who can look after her. I’m praying that Alex is that man.”

But even though Amy is said to have told her husband that their marriage is over, Janis added: “Blake has had a weird control over her for so long so I can’t get my hopes up.”

“He is always calling her from prison, threatening to divorce her but it’s just emotional blackmail. If she and Alex are meant to be, they’re meant to be. I can only wish for that.”

“More than anything, I want to see her drug-free so she can finally put this terrible time behind her.”

Amy is said to have been seeing Alex for around four weeks while Blake is on remand at Pentonville prison in north London - but she’s been behaving like “a single woman”, Blake is also said to have found himself a new love.

Unlike Amy, model Sophie Schandorff was at his court appearance at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on Friday and the pair were spotted exchanging mouthed “I love you”s.

A source told the Sunday Mirror that the pair met during his break from Amy in 2006 after meeting at a photo shoot organised by his ex-girlfriend Chloe Kerman: “Chloe got angry because he got Sophie’s number and invited her over when she was away. He was still seeing Sophie when he got back with Amy. They have stayed in touch since and he’s been talking to her from prison.”

Sophie herself was quoted in the Mirror as saying: “We are best of friends.”