Everybody is gunning for Heather: count me out

The big emotional notes failed to chime, too, as she pleaded her daughter's poverty - to the rest of us £35,000 pocket money a year sounds generous for a four-year-old - and cited the difficulty of being on the wrong side of the legal system's old boys' network, shortly before McCartney's female counsel emerged, drenched from a dousing by Heather. Despite the prosthetic leg, Mills makes an unconvincing victim.

Yet there is also something grotesque about the baiting of Heather Mills. She's a hard case for the defence, being so demonstrably greedy and more than slightly unhinged. But did Mr Justice Bennett have to release his 58-page judgment when there was no legal obligation to do so? His justification, that it was in the public interest to end the speculation over the terms of their divorce, rings hollow when you witness the final humiliation of Heather.

Paul McCartney had already come out of this trial ahead. Financially it could have been worse - and arguably, by marrying such a liabilityas Mills sans pre-nup he was asking to be fleeced - but, mainly, he won the PR war.

Heather was never going to get the public vote. Paul is a national treasure; people's sympathy falls with him. That is one reason why his flaws are discounted - and he walks away garlanded with praise at the end of this messy mistake of a marriage.

Chancing her arm is Heather's stock in trade. Though she squandered her credibility, she still emerged with more money than most of us could dream of. But the goingover to which she was subjected after the trial plays into the hands of those who always object to women receiving a sizeable chunk of their husband's wealth when a marriage ends - even if they've behaved a whole lot better than Heather.

Not so long ago it was very different. Women fought hard to gain access to a fair share of their husband'sassets. When my parents split up, 20 years ago, Mum could have been left with nothing, having stayed at home to bring up three children and manage my Dad's business - without a wage. Nothing was in her name and she didn't have a pension. Fortunately they separated amicably,

but many women weren't - and still aren't - as lucky.

Heather might have been unmasked as a gold-digger but I hope other women who don't have her chutzpah or her greed won't find themselves tarred with the same brush when it's their turn in court.