Naomi Campbell vows to fight six-month jail sentence

Naomi Campbell. Photo / AP

Naomi Campbell last night vowed to clear her name after she received a six-month suspended jail sentence for assaulting a photographer.

The 45-year-old supermodel, who was convicted in her absence by a court in Sicily on Friday, said she would appeal against the sentence. Lawyer Guido Carlo Alleva said: "We are fighting the ruling. Due to the ongoing legal process, we can't discuss the matter further."

Campbell is alleged to have hit photographer Gaetano Di Giovanni with her handbag when he tried to photograph her on the Sicilian island of Lipari in 2009.

The court was told that Campbell, who landed her first modelling assignment when she was 15, scratched one of Mr Di Giovanni's eyes, which required medical treatment.

Initially, Campbell had hoped the matter would not come to court, and the photographer withdrew his claims after he and the model reached an unspecified agreement.

But prosecutor Francesco Massara subsequently ordered that a trial should go ahead because of the seriousness of the incident.

In 2013, when Campbell was ordered to stand trial, Mr Di Giovanni said: "I had just started taking some shots of her and I did not expect such a violent reaction."

Campbell has a history of assaulting employees.

In 2000, she pleaded guilty in Toronto to assaulting her personal assistant Georgina Galanis with a mobile phone. Seven years later, she pleaded guilty in New York to assaulting her former housekeeper Ana Scolavino, who had accused her of throwing a BlackBerry personal organiser at her.

Campbell and her representatives were unavailable for comment last night.

- Daily Mail