Naomi mother takes swipe at 'racist' press

Naomi Campbell's mother yesterday criticised the media, saying that press attacks on her daughter during and after a High Court battle with a tabloid paper were motivated by racism.

Ms Campbell, 31, won £3,500 damages last week after Mr Justice Morland ruled that the Mirror had breached her rights to confidentiality by publishing details about her attending Narcotics Anonymous. However, the judge balanced the verdict by criticising the model for lying in court, a charge reiterated in several tabloids.

Speaking to the Independent on Sunday, Valerie Campbell yesterday challenged the Mirror's columnist Sue Carroll to repeat her description of the model as a "chocolate soldier" to other black people. "That was blatantly racist. I was disgusted by the Mirror's editor trying to suggest it was a common phrase with no racial connotations. If Sue Carroll or Piers Morgan think it's so inoffensive, they should go to Brixton and start calling black women 'chocolate soldiers' and see what happens."

Valerie Campbell, a fashion designer, argued that editorials in a range of newspapers after last week's ruling reflected the paper's frustration that it had been beaten by a "young, black girl".

She said: "They just can't take the fact that they lost the case. They cannot stand it because a young, black girl has put them under manners and now they are all ganging up to moan about it."

She praised her daughter's "courageous" decision to seek treatment for her drug addiction: "I think my daughter was very courageous to go along to an open meeting like that with ordinary people to admit her addiction in public. It was a very hard thing for her to stand up and admit her problem in front of a whole lot of strangers."

Valerie Campbell's comments came as her daughter's lawyers claimed the final legal bill faced by the Mirror could exceed £500,000 ­ more than twice the sum quoted until now. Keith Schilling, the model's solicitor, said that, in addition to the paper's own estimated costs of £200,000, he would pursue a claim for £250,000 or more.