Supermodel Naomi beat me up, says hired driver

A man hired to drive Naomi Campbell has told New York police the supermodel attacked him from the back seat of a luxury sport-utility vehicle before getting out and running away.

Police said today they were looking for Campbell, who is known for her feisty temper, and were considering whether to charge her.

A spokesman for Campbell said last night she would co-operate with police.

“There shouldn’t be a rush to judgment,” Jeff Raymond said.

“Naomi will co-operate voluntarily and there is more to the story than meets the eye.”

The driver, whose name was not immediately released, told police he pulled the black Cadillac Escalade over in midtown Manhattan yesterday after Campbell hit him from behind.

He said his head struck the steering wheel, causing bruising under his right eye.

The driver spoke to a traffic agent, who alerted police. Campbell was not at the scene, police said.

The driver, apparently hired just for the day, told police he picked Campbell up at a Manhattan hotel and was taking her to Astoria Studios, a TV and film studio complex in Queens, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Campbell’s assistant spoke to police, but authorities were still looking to talk to the 39-year-old model. The driver was at a police precinct last night.

Campbell has faced a series of lawsuits and criminal cases accusing her of attacking her household employees and two police officers at London’s Heathrow Airport.

She pleaded guilty in the Heathrow case in June 2008 after prosecutors said she swore, kicked and spat at police in a rage over a missing piece of luggage. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service.

She also did a week of community service sweeping floors and scrubbing toilets in a Manhattan rubbish-truck garage in 2007 after pleading guilty to misdemeanour assault for hurling a mobile phone at her maid over a vanished pair of jeans.

In 2000 Campbell pleaded guilty in Toronto, Canada to an assault charge for beating an assistant who said the model struck her on the head with a phone.

A few of Campbell’s former aides and maids have sued her, accusing her of violent outbursts. Some cases have been settled on undisclosed terms.

Campbell became one of the world’s highest-paid models after being discovered at 15.