Naomi Campbell pleads guilty in NYC to assault

NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) Supermodel Naomi Campbell yesterday admitted in Manhattan court to throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper and was sentenced to five days of community service for third-degree assault.

Campbell, who appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in black pants, gray tweed double-breasted jacket and dark sunglasses, was also fined 363 dollars and ordered to attend anger management classes after pleading guilty.

The British beauty was charged in March 2006 with second-degree assault and faced up to seven years in prison and possible deportation.

Prosecutors said in court documents Campbell threw the phone at Ana Scolavino, 42, during a dispute over a pair of jeans. They said the phone hit the woman in the back of her head, opening a wound that required four staples to close.

Campbell did not comment as she left court. Her lawyer David Breitbart told reporters she had admitted throwing a phone that hit her employee, but it was an accident and not intentional.

''She must have suffered some pain and Naomi was sorry about that,'' said Breitbart, adding he expected Scolavino to now take civil action.

He said the judge recommended Campbell serve her community service indoors in a bid to avoid the throngs of photographers that surrounded singer Boy George as he attempted to sweep streets in lower Manhattan in August as part of a court-ordered community service.

''As I told the judge, with her history of people threatening her, with her history of people stalking her, it would be a dangerous thing for her to be doing community service outdoors,'' Breitbart said.

Campbell, 36, is no stranger to controversy and at least three employees have accused her of hitting or otherwise assaulting them. She has blamed her hot temper on lingering resentment toward her father for abandoning her as a child.

In June, maid Gaby Gibson said the celebrity struck her in the head. She has filed a civil lawsuit accusing Campbell of personal injury, employment discrimination, civil assault and battery.

In July, former assistant Amanda Black also sued Campbell, saying she was subjected to a series of ''verbal, physical and emotional attacks'' by the model shortly after she was hired by her in February of 2005.

In February 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Canadian court for assaulting another former assistant with a telephone. In that case she paid the assistant an undisclosed amount of money and attended anger management classes.

Spotted on the streets of London's Covent Garden tourist area when she was 15, Campbell was the first black model to the grace covers of French and British Vogue.

REUTERS PKS BST0522