Kirsten Dunsts handbag thief drops drugs bombshell

A man on trial for allegedly stealing from Kirsten Dunst and actor Simon Pegg has sensationally insisted that the stars were getting a drug delivery, according to reports.

James Jimenez is on trial accused of breaking into a New York hotel penthouse, where the stars were staying while filming How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, and stealing Dunst's Balenciaga handbag and Pegg's iPod and camera.

Now Jimenez's lawyer has made the sensational claim that his client had permission to be there – because he was with a man supplying drugs to the two stars.

Defence lawyer Robert Parker told jurors in opening statements in the New York trial: "There is a very good explanation as to why my client was there.

"There were drugs in the room of Kirsten Dunst and Simon Pegg."

However, he gave no details as to who the drugs belonged to.

Parker claimed that the man Jiminez was tagging along with, Jarrod Beinerman – already serving four years for the crime – is a "major New York drug-dealer", adding that his client “obviously had permission to be there".

Beinerman pleaded guilty to the burglary in 2008 and is also serving a prison sentence for peddling heroin.