Mills: ‘I felt like a trapped animal’
Heather Mills-McCartney was giving evidence in the trial of freelance photographer Jay Kaycappa, who is charged with assaulting her.
Brighton Magistrates Court was told by prosecutor Dale Sullivan that Ms Mills-McCartney was assaulted in the subway on Brighton seafront on July 5 last year.
Kaycappa is alleged to have grabbed her right shoulder and turned her round in order to photograph her.
Under cross-examination, Ms Mills-McCartney said she wheeled her bike into the subway to escape the paparazzi and panicked when she spotted a photographer at the tunnel’s exit.
She said: “I panicked and thought I’ll go back the other way and that’s when I turned round and saw Mr Kaycappa.
“I felt concerned because I had one there and one there and I felt like a trapped animal so I turned into the wall to get on my phone.”
Ms Mills-McCartney claimed Kaycappa assaulted her as she called Ben Amigoni, her personal trainer and right-hand man, to rescue her
She told Mr Sullivan: “I felt a hand on my shoulder. He yanked me round. He hauled me round because I wasn’t letting him get that picture.”
The 39-year-old former model had gone on the bike ride with Mr Amigoni and an American couple, Mark Payne and Michael Shilub.
Ms Mills-McCartney said: “How anyone didn’t find Saddam Hussein they just should have sent a load of journalists.”
She said the assault left her with a damaged vertebra which requires regular treatment by a chiropractor. Kaycappa, of The Hurdles, Fareham, Hampshire, denies the charges.
The trial was adjourned to July 3 at Brighton Magistrates’ Court. Kaycappa was released on unconditional bail.
