Campbell admits assault but asks to do community service indoors

Naomi Campbell has asked a New York judge if she can do her community service, imposed as punishment for assaulting one of her staff, indoors.

A lawyer for the supermodel, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge of reckless assault in New York after she threw a mobile phone at her housekeeper, said yesterday it would not be safe for her to pay for her offence by doing community service such as street-sweeping.

Following a plea bargain with prosecutors at Manhattan Criminal Court, she was sentenced to five days' community service and a two-day anger management course, and ordered to pay medical bills of $363 (£185) for her housekeeper.

In court, Campbell admitted throwing the phone in her Park Avenue apartment but said she did not intend it to hit Ana Scolavino, who needed four stitches after the incident.

She said: "I am advised that Ana was hurt, and I am deeply sorry about that."

Sporting a short bobbed haircut, Campbell told the judge: "Ana Scolavino was an employee of mine. During the morning of 30 March 2006, I threw a cellphone in the apartment. The cellphone hit Ana. That was an accident because I did not intend to hit her."

Her lawyer, David Breitbart, asked that her community service be an indoor task rather than something like sweeping thestreets. This was for Campbell's safety, he said.

Judge Robert Mandelbaum said he would note the request. Assistant District Attorney Shanda Strain said: "If that's what is available at the time she goes to do the community service that is acceptable."

Outside the court, Mr Breitbart said that his client had been "very anxious to get this over".

Campbell, 36, is no stranger to controversy and has blamed her hot temper on lingering resentment toward her father for abandoning her as a child.

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

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

Campbell was arrested in October in London on suspicion of assault after a woman alleged that she had been attacked. Campbell's spokesman said the model had done nothing wrong.

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