Heather: I felt like a trapped animal in 'assault'

Heather Mills McCartney felt 'like a trapped animal' when she was allegedly assaulted by a photographer, a court has heard.

The estranged wife of Sir Paul McCartney claims freelance Jay Kaycappa grabbed her shoulder and spun her round to take a picture of her face.

She denied lying under oath and fabricating the entire story after a series of pictures taken by her alleged assailant in the course of the incident appeared to contradict her evidence.

Kaycappa, 32, a married father of three from Fareham, Hampshire, denies two counts of assault on consecutive days in Brighton last July, claiming he did not touch anyone.

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Heather Mills McCartney leaving court after giving her evidence

In the second incident he is said to have pushed a friend of Mrs Mills McCartney, Hollywood make-up artist Mark Payne, against a wall when he tried to prevent him taking a photograph.

Mrs Mills McCartney - wearing knee-high boots designed by Sir Paul's daughter Stella - began her evidence at Brighton magistrates court by giving her name as 'Heather Ann Mills McCartney - soon to be just Mills'.

She said that by the time of the alleged assault she had been stalked by paparazzi for the two months since her marriage failure became public.

On the day in question, she said, she set off from her Brighton home for a bike ride along the seafront in the late morning with her 'personal trainer and right-hand assistant' Ben Amigoni - as well as Mr Payne and his gay lover Michael Shilub.

The former model, who has a prosthetic leg, said she became aware that photographers, including Kaycappa, were following and in an attempt to escape began cycling through a subway-under a road. She found herself apart from her friends, she said, and got off her bike. Mrs Mills McCartney, 39, continued: 'As I turned I saw Kaycappa, who is quite a scary figure. I felt scared, like a trapped animal. I leant my bike against the wall and turned to get on the phone.

'I felt a hand pull me round to try and get better pictures. It was a hand on my shoulder that yanked me round. It was all very frightening.'

She said her friends arrived moments after and they rode to a cafe from where the police were called. She had needed treatment for recurring back pain ever since, she added.

Her account was challenged when it emerged that Kaycappa took 181 photographs over the course of the alleged assault, all with timings attached.

The entire sequence was shown to the court in slide show form and suggested that the photographer had a

window of only two seconds to run forward, grab Mrs Mills McCartney, spin her round, then run back to take the next picture.

Anya Lewis, defending, said: 'If these times are accurate, then you must have lied to us about what's happened.'

Mrs Mills McCartney said: 'No, why would I lie? They're not accurate and I've not lied.' She insisted the timings and order of Kaycappa's pictures had been changed.

Miss Lewis said: 'I suggest to you that you have invented the account you've given about being assaulted.'

Mrs Mills McCartney: 'You should look at the nine months of footage I've given to the police I've not invented.' She denied deluging the police with harassment complaints, but accepted she had once called officers three times in two days.

She said she had been harassed by numerous photographers and that Kaycappa was the worst.

Mrs Mills McCartney said: 'I don't need to spend my time in court doing this. I'm here because Kaycappa has assaulted and upset a lot of people - and I'm the only one going out on a limb to bring this forward.

'I don't want him going to prison, community service would sort him out.'

The case was adjourned until next month.

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