Friday, 27 June 2008

Naomi Campbell pleads guilty to police assault

LONDON (Reuters) - British supermodel Naomi Campbell pleaded guilty on Friday to assaulting two police officers after a disturbance on a plane at London's Heathrow airport in April.


Wearing a dark suit and sunglasses, the 38-year-old was escorted by her minders through a large scrum of reporters and photographers waiting outside Uxbridge Magistrates Court in west London.


Campbell had originally faced six charges relating to the incident on a stationary Los Angeles-bound British Airways plane.


She had complained that her bags had gone missing at the airport's recently opened Terminal 5 and police escorted her off the aircraft.


On Friday she pleaded guilty to four charges, a spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. They included assaulting two police officers and one public order offence.


"We've accepted that plea," the CPS spokeswoman said.


Earlier Campbell's spokesman, Alan Edwards, said outside court that she conceded the incident had been "regrettable" and that she wanted to give magistrates her side of the story.


In April, British Airways was beset by problems with the check-in and baggage handling systems at the new 4.3 billion pound ($8.6 billion) terminal. Hundreds of flights were cancelled and tens of thousands of bags went missing.


It is not the first time Campbell has been in trouble with the law.