Channel 4 has today insisted that Misfits star Lauren Socha was axed from the show before she appeared in court charged with a racially motivated attack on a taxi driver.

The case against Socha – who played Kelly in the supernatural E4 drama – resulted in her being found guilty of assaulting taxi driver Sakander Iqbal after what the Daily Mirror described as “a nine hour drinking binge”.

In finding her guilty, the court sentenced her to a four-month suspended sentence and ordered that she carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £450 compensation to her victim, plus £750 in court costs.

Mr Iqbal told the paper, “She called me a P***, a dirty b******, told me to f*** off back to my country.”

He added that Socha had warned she would have his family “lifted”, and told him, “You don’t know who I am…”

Mr Iqbal concluded, “I have learned she was named one of Cosmopolitan’s Women of the Year. Well, she isn’t for me.”

In a statement about Lauren being axed from Misfits, Channel 4 said, “A mutual decision was reached between production company Clerkenwell and Lauren earlier this year that she would not be returning for the fourth series.”

The new series will air later this year.