FORMER X-FACTOR JUDGE TULISA FACING LIFE IN JAIL

Singer Tulisa Contostavlos has been charged with being involved in the supply of Class A drugs - an offence which can be punished with life imprisonment.

The 25-year-old was allegedly filmed appearing to set up an $820 cocaine deal between an alleged supplier and a man who was later revealed as an undercover journalist.

The shamed former X Factor judge was held after going to a police station in central London by appointment on June 4.

Baljit Ubhey, CPS London Chief Crown Prosecutor, said: "The Crown Prosecution Service has today authorized the Metropolitan Police Service to charge Tulisa Contostavlos, 25, with being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

"This charge relates to an investigation by The Sun newspaper between early March 2013 and 23 May 2013 which resulted in the supply of Class A drugs to an investigative journalist.

"This decision to prosecute was taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

"We have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.

"Ms. Contostavlos will appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on 19 December 2013."

Rapper Mike GLC also charged in real name Michael Coombs and will be in court the same day as Tulisa.

Supplying Class A drugs carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment but such severe punishment is only applied in the most extreme circumstances.

The former N Dubz singer has a history of emotional troubles.

As a teenager growing up in tough conditions in Camden Town, North London, she twice tried to commit suicide and has admitted to self-harming.

Her mum Anne was sectioned under the Mental Health Act when Tulisa was five and her father left the family when she was 14.

Tulisa, who now lives in luxury in Hertfordshire, struggled to cope with life in an abusive environment and attempted to overdose.

She revealed in a recent interview: "I was kind of like, 'I can't think of any other way to deal with all this'. If I thought like that now, I'd want to slap myself."

In another interview she confessed: "I still get those moments now and again. Although I can be very feisty, that's a defense mechanism for me.

"I'm defensive because too many years of my life I was treated like s***."

The star, whose debut solo album made it to only number 35 in the charts, won an apology last year from a former boyfriend who leaked footage on to the internet of the two of them being intimate.