'Idol' attacker 'wanted revenge for Abdul'

The woman accused of attacking Simon Cowell's ex-girlfriend has reportedly claimed that she was seeking revenge for Paula Abdul.

Janice Thibodeaux, 33, was charged with felony battery after she attempted to choke Terri Seymour following a taping of American Idol on Tuesday.

Speaking to Radar Online, she said: "I wasn’t cool with Simon choking Paula Abdul on the show last week and with her crying out 'help' as he did so.

"Nobody said anything about that so I wanted to confront him about it because that is not appropriate behavior, is it?"

She went on to say that she "did not regret what I did because of what Simon did to Paula, nobody seemed to care about that".

Seymour has since described the incident as "very scary", while Cowell told Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM radio show that it had been a "frenzied attack", adding: "[She was] nearly strangled. It was bad. I really, really felt sorry for her."

Thibodeaux is currently being held on $52,000 (£33,000) bail.