Fifteen-year-old girl admits mugging opera singer Katherine Jenkins

A 15-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to robbing Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins.

The teenager admitted stealing an iPhone from the mezzo-soprano during an incident in Kensington on 4 December.

She was charged at Highbury Corner Youth Court with robbery and assault on a police officer.

The Welsh mezzo-soprano, who is referred to in the charge by her married name Katherine Levitas, was in London to sing at the Henry van Straubenzee charity carol concert at St Luke's Church in Chelsea.

The teenager also pleaded guilty to assault by beating of an emergency worker.

The girl, who cannot be named because of her age, said she would be willing to apologise to her victim either face to face or in a letter.

Prosecutor Robert Simpson told the court that Jenkins had a cup in one hand and her phone in the other when she spotted a “struggle with a lady” in which attackers were trying to take her handbag.

“She intervened at that point,” he said, adding that the defendant thought that she was being filmed and took the phone from Jenkins.

The singer was assisted by members of the public and police arrived.

Mr Simpson said the screen on the phone had been broken and there was a “clumsy attempt to remove the SIM card”.

District Judge Susan Williams imposed a referral order of six months and ordered the girl‘s mother to pay £20 in compensation.

The judge asked the teenager what she could do to help the victim feel better, and she said “probably apologise”, adding: “I know that’s not going to make up for what I did.”

Sabrina Fitzgerald, the girl’s counsel, said the teenager took the phone “because she thought she was being filmed”.

She said the girl is on course for the equivalent of A grades in her GCSEs and said there were “issues around peer pressure and poor decision-making skills”.

Jenkins was not in court for the hearing.