District Judge Timothy Workman found the 25-year-old singer not guilty of punching dancer Sherene Flash in the eye after the fan asked to take her picture following a charity ball in September.

Prosecutors claimed it was a deliberate assault. But Winehouse said she had felt intimidated by the drunken Flash and claimed she was too short to have hit the dancer in the face.

The judge said that after hearing the evidence, he could not be sure the blow had been deliberate.

"The charge is dismissed and the defendant discharged," he said.

Winehouse, dressed in a knee-length black skirt, gray jacket and white shirt, shrugged as the verdict was announced. She remained in the dock until her lawyer spoke to her, apparently clarifying the verdict.

relieved

"I'm relieved. I'm going home," she said as she left court through a jostling pack of photographers and television cameras.

In a statement read by a spokesman, the singer said she was "very happy to move on with her life and put the episode behind her".