Bieber has a fan in Toronto Mayor Rob Ford

Toronto’s bad boy mayor Rob Ford on Thursday defended troubled pop star Justin Bieber after police in Canada’s largest city charged the teenager with assault, his second arrest in a week. ‘He’s a young guy, 19 years old. I wish I was as successful as he was,’ Ford told a Washington radio show, urging listeners to ‘think back’ to when they were teenagers. Bieber was charged on Wednesday with assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto last month. Toronto police accused Bieber of hitting the driver ‘several times’ over the back of the head. The car had picked him and five others up from a nightclub in the city in the early hours of 30 December.

The misdemeanor charges in Canada follow his arrest in Miami Beach on 23 January for driving under the influence and resisting arrest during a street drag racing incident. Through his lawyers, Bieber said that he is innocent of the Toronto charges, and he has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed in Miami Beach.