Campbell attacks 'vendetta' against Moss

Naomi Campbell has spoken out in support of Kate Moss in the face of cocaine abuse allegations.

“Kate Moss is my friend … I think it’s like everybody is being bad to her,” the supermodel told a news conference in the Colombian capital Bogota where she was judging a modelling competition.

“It’s not the first time it has happened in the world … it’s really like a vendetta,” Campbell said of published pictures that appeared to show the 31-year-old Moss snorting cocaine in London.

Moss has since lost three modelling contracts and is being investigated by police.

Campbell, who has confessed to using cocaine in the past, insisted it was wrong to blame the modelling industry for drug abuse and eating disorders among young women, but encouraged aspiring models to complete their education in case their modelling careers failed to take off.

She agreed to take part in a programme run by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Colombia to raise awareness about human trafficking, saying she wanted to help in “providing a safe environment for models and preventing exploitation of human beings”.

More than a dozen Colombian models from the Elite modelling agency attended a UN course in Bogota earlier this week on how to spread the message about the risks of being lured abroad and sexually exploited.

Colombian police estimate that up to 50,000 Colombians, including many underage girls and boys, have been forced into prostitution abroad, mainly in Japan, Spain and Holland.

“The modelling world attracts a large number of girls, particularly from the remote countryside, and it's important for the industry to help protect them,” said Sandro Calvani, the UNODC chief in Colombia. “These vulnerable girls will listen to stars like Naomi Campbell.”