Chart-topping singer Katy Perry and her record label have been ordered to pay a massive £2.2 million for plundering segments of a song written by a Christian rapper.
Perry lost a copyright case brought by rapper Flame, which claimed she stole beats from his 2008 release Joyful Noise and used them on her 2013 hit Dark Horse.
Label Capitol Records was ordered to pay £990,000 in damages to the rapper, real name Marcus Gray, while it was ruled Perry should pay £450,000 to the performer and his two co-writers.
The 34-year-old hitmaker was not in court to hear the decision.
She had earlier testified she believed Dark Horse was an original composition created by her producers and writers written after she was presented with a series of short instrumental passages.
Her legal team said she would appeal against the damages' ruling.
"The writers of Dark Horse consider this a travesty of justice," her attorney Christine Lepera told reporters outside the court.
Dark Horse earned about £25 million for Capitol Records, part of Universal Music Group. The song is understood to have brought Perry about £2.6 million.
