Sicilian court gives Naomi Campbell six months suspended prison sentence after she scratched the eye of a paparazzo photographer in August 2009. Canmpbell was convicted of assault by a Sicilian court on Friday after she scratched the eye of a paparazzo photographer who took pictures of her and her former boyfriend.
The incident occurred in August 2009 when the British supermodel and her then partner Russian billionaire Vladimir Doronin moored their yacht off the Sicilian island of Lipari to visit the local town. They had just arrived from St Tropez.A photographer, Gaetano Di Giovanni, took several photos of Campbell as she walked through the narrow streets.
Campbell then hit photographer with her handbag, scratching one of his eyes. Mr Di Giovanni needed medical treatment following the incident and took three days to recover, the court heard. "I had just started taking some shots of her and I did not expect such a violent reaction," Di Giovanni said in 2013, when Campbell was ordered to stand trial.
The model's lawyers subsequently reached an agreement with the photographer so that he withdrew charges he had pressed against Campbell but prosecutor Francesco Massara ordered the trial to go ahead in the public interest because of the gravity of the charges against her, Italy's national news agency Ansa said.Campbell received a six months suspended prison term. Campbell did not reply to request for comment.Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and author. Recruited at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognizable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and the 1990s.
In addition to her modelling career, Campbell has embarked on other ventures, which include a novel, an R&B-pop studio album, and several acting appearances in film and television, such as the modelling competition reality show The Face and its international offshoots. Campbell is also involved in charity work for various causes. Despite her status as the most famous black model of her time, Campbell never earned the same volume of advertising assignments as her white colleagues, and she was not signed by a cosmetics company until as late as 1999. In 1991, she revealed, "I may be considered one of the top models in the world, but in no way do I make the same money as any of them." Throughout her career, Campbell has been outspoken against the racial bias that exists in the fashion industry.