Claim Campbell’s former agent ‘told pack of lies’
Carole White insisted her account of how ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor gave Campbell the precious stones after she flirted with him was the truth.
She also claimed the model texted or phoned the African leader or his staff as she excitedly waited for her present to arrive.
Campbell told Taylor’s war crimes trial in The Hague last week that she received the diamonds after a party hosted by Nelson Mandela in September 1997, but did not know who they came from.
The former president’s legal team tore into Ms White’s evidence yesterday in a heated cross-examination session at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Netherlands.
They suggested she invented her story to support her $600,000 (€720,000) legal dispute with Campbell over alleged unpaid royalties from a perfume deal.
Defence lawyer Courtenay Griffiths QC said to her: “I suggest that your account is a complete pack of lies, and you have made it up in order to assist in your lawsuit against Miss Campbell.”
Quoting Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s 1982 hip-hop single The Message, he added: “Put bluntly, for you this is all about money, there ain’t nothing funny.”
White replied: “It’s totally the truth. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my business argument with Naomi Campbell.”
White, co-founder of Premier Model Management, was questioned about a witness statement in which she said she heard Taylor promising to give Campbell the diamonds at the dinner organised by Mandela in Pretoria, South Africa.
She admitted yesterday she did not hear him say he would make the gift. “He nodded that he was going to send her diamonds. I didn’t hear the words, I don’t recall them,” she said.
Griffiths said: “The bottom line is, you made this up.”
She replied: “I did not make it up.”
White said Campbell and one of Taylor’s ministers discussed how the jewels would be delivered to the model.
“It was quite clear that some men had already been dispatched to Johannesburg to collect the diamonds,” she said.
The agent said Campbell received updates from Taylor or his staff about the men’s progress via phone calls or text messages.
But Griffiths said neither the Liberian president nor any of his entourage had a mobile phone in 1997.
Later that night, after everyone had gone to bed, White was roused when stones were thrown at the window of her room.
She said she went to the window and found two men outside who told her, “We’ve got a gift for Miss Campbell.”
Asked how Campbell reacted on being told about the men, White said: “I think she was quite excited that finally these diamonds had arrived.”
Explaining why she came forward to give evidence, she said: “I have known this story since 1997. It is quite an amazing story.
“However, when I was told by my lawyer that Charles Taylor had been in The Hague in a war crimes trial, I realised it was very serious and the blood diamond issue had a big bearing on the case.
“It was my duty to tell my story that happened 13 years ago. I haven’t lied and this is a true story.”
