Kanye West: I didn’t assault anyone but the paparazzi should be illegal

Kanye West has denied he assaulted a paparazzi photographer in an altercation in Newcastle on Friday.

Kanye was arrested after the incident which is said to have taken place as he was leaving a nightclub in the city.

Writing on his blog, he explained: “When I left the club, I was encountered by a thirsty paparazzi as usual. He felt he had more rights to my space than me, so I put my hand up to prevent him from taking my image.

“I didn’t assault him, I merely put my hand up to cover his lens. I guess in all the commotion the camera scraped his nose.

“Three hours later I get a knock at my hotel door. There were five police officers and I had no idea why.

“The cops were very cordial but told me they had to arrest me because a complaint was filed. That was the bogus part. They still had to go through the motions. They placed me in handcuffs and drove me to the station.

“When I got back to the hotel there were paparazzi hanging above the bridge above the hotel trying to get a shot of me getting out of the police van. Even though I wasn’t charged, the damage was done.”

He added: “Let us not forget that the paps killed Princess Diana. When will there be a law passed… that someone has to ask to take a photograph of you? That would seem like common courtesy.

“What should be illegal is pictures taken with the intent to sell - like drugs with the intent to sell.”

The incident marks Kanye’s second arrest in just over two months: he was arrested following a similar episode at LAX airport in September and accused of deliberately breaking a $10,000 camera. He was not charged over that either.