Yesterday Mel B obtained a restraining order against the 25 year-old German nanny whom her husband allegedly got pregnant in early 2014. Mel’s abusive estranged husband, Stephen “Belafonte,” has allegedly been colluding with the nanny to extort and threaten Mel. Stephen rented a storage space under the nanny’s name, Lorraine Gilles, where he was thought to be keeping Mel’s personal photos and Spice Girls memorabilia he removed from their garage. It was also thought that Stephen may be storing sex tapes he took of Mel without her knowledge and threatened to release. The restraining order states that Lorraine must stay away from Mel, that she cannot remove any of Mel’s items from storage and that she must provide access to the storage locker.

When Mel first went to the storage facility to look for her items she was denied access. She returned with police and eventually got in, but none of her things were there. It looks like Stephen or another party had removed them already.

Meanwhile Stephen has issued a statement through his lawyer smearing Mel and claiming that she’s “creating further hysteria” because abused women are crazy, right? This is such typical abuser speak.

Stephen’s lawyer, Grace Jamra, tells TMZ, both Mel B and Belafonte agreed weeks ago that the Spice Girls memorabilia would be put in storage for safe-keeping since their house was going up for sale.
Jamra says Mel B was well aware of the plan and knew which facility would house the items. And, she says, at the time, both Mel B and Belafonte were getting along fine.

As for claims former nanny Lorraine Gilles was involved in the storage locker hijinks, Jamra says, “She had nothing to do with the storage facility and, in fact, Ms. Brown terminated Lorraine before the items were placed in storage.”

Jamra says, “Unfortunately, it appears that Ms. Brown is creating further hysteria and seeking meaningless Court orders,” adding, they are waiting for Mel B’s lawyers to call and arrange a time and date for inventory of the storage locker. Jamra says, “It will be clear to everyone that there are no sex tapes in the storage.”

Sure, Mel asked Stephen to put all the photos she had of her late dad, whom Stephen tried to keep her from visiting when he was on his deathbed, and put them in storage at the same time she was kicking him out of the house. That makes so much sense. And there aren’t any sex tapes in storage because they’re digital files and are being stored on a cloud somewhere. As for the nanny, she’s an adult but I’m sure she was manipulated and controlled by Stephen, even if she seems complicit from the outside.

Meanwhile remember that an ex girlfriend of Stephen’s came out and said that he was abusive to her too and she wishes she would have warned Mel? Well Stephen went to the cops claiming that the woman was lying and trying to extort him for money. This is so clearly a deflection tactic and this guy is so transparent and awful. I feel for Mel and hope that she’s vindicated soon and that she gets her things back. I also hope that Stephen is prosecuted for weapons possession. We haven’t heard much about that since the ATF raided his house and found shell casings and ammo, but hopefully he’ll be brought up on charges.

photos credit: Getty and FameFlynet