Ono wins battle with employee who exploited Lennon legacy

Yoko Ono has won a bitter and long-running legal battle with a former personal assistant who was forced to admit yesterday that he had exploited the Lennon legacy for profit.

Frederick Seaman issued a public apology to Ms Ono, her late husband and their son Sean as part of the settlement.

Ms Ono had sued Mr Seaman over the rights to 374 photographs he took of the Lennon family, many in the months before Lennon was murdered by a deranged fan.

In a statement read in court by Ms Ono's legal team, Mr Seaman said: "I offer no excuses for my conduct, and ask only that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

"After more than 20 years, it's time to ask for forgiveness for my actions. I now realise how much pain and embarrassment I have caused."

The settlement was a complete victory for Ms Ono, forcing the former employee to surrender all rights to the photographs. They included a picture of Lennon with his son at a beach in Bermuda in 1980. It showed that "John was a person. He was not just an artist, but a family man and a dad", she told jurors during the trial which opened on Monday.

Mr Seaman must return any Lennon-related items in his possession within 10 days. He admitted in court on Wednesday that he planned to write a book about his former employer despite signing a confidentiality pact 23 years ago.

He agreed to an injunction ordering him to stop disseminating photos, interviews and personal documents from Lennon and to comply with the confidentiality agreement.

During the trial, Ms Ono said she sued Mr Seaman after he supplied videotape of a family picnic to a television show and claimed copyright to family photographs.

Mr Seaman began working for Lennon in February 1979. Ms Ono said she fired him in 1982 when she caught him wearing Lennon's clothes and charging money to her account.