Heather Mills angry website rant against claims she is losing divorce battle

But, given free rein of a keyboard, and a very different picture emerges. Because the 39-year-old activist seems to have discovered a new weapon in her armour - her personal website.

More here... • Does that sign mean victory, Sir Paul?

• Read the statement in full here

So, less than a week after appearing opposite her estranged husband in London's High Court to discuss child maintenance issues, Miss Mills has let rip with yet another internet rant.

It is the fourth time in eight weeks that she has used her homepage to try and defend herself and attack the media.

This latest instalment comes after the former model's claims that McCartney physically attacked her and mocked her disability were reportedly thrown out by the judge.

Speaking via her website, Heathermills.org, the vociferous campaigner claims she is a victim of 'character assassination'.

Bizarrely, she quotes from the cult online encyclopaedia, wikipedia, suggesting that media coverage of her has abused her 'morals, integrity and reputation', and caused her to become a social outcast, 'rejected' by her friends and family.

She writes: 'Character assassination is an intentional attempt to influence the portrayal or reputation of a particular person, whether living or a historical personage, in such a way as to cause others to develop an extremely negative, unethical or unappealing perception of him or her.

'For living individuals, this can cause the target to be rejected by his or her community, family, or members of his or her living or work environment.

'Such acts are typically very difficult to reverse or rectify, therefore the process is likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can be life-long and more, or for historical personages, last for many centuries after their death.

'In practice, character assassination usually consists of the spreading of rumours and deliberate misinformation on topics relating to one's morals, integrity, and reputation.'

Embarrassingly, given the emergence of pornographic photographs of Miss Mills last year following repeated claims that she worked as a prostitute in her 20s, she later includes an excerpt about 'sexual deviancy'.

Indeed, she concludes her defamation polemic with the words: 'In politics, perhaps the most common form of character assassination is the spread of allegations that a candidate is a liar.

'Other common themes may include allegations that the candidate is a bad or unpopular member of his family, has a bad relationship with his spouse or children, is disrespected by his former co-workers, or routinely engages in disturbing, socially unacceptable behaviour, such as sexual deviancy.'

This is not the first time that Miss Mills, who announced her divorce from McCartney last May after a four-year marriage, has used her website to hit out at stories written about her - despite pleas from her advisers to remain silent.

Under the heading 'Enough is Enough', Miss Mills' sister, Fiona, issued a 500 word diatribe in defence of her older sibling.

In it, she accused McCartney of putting both Miss Mills and her daughter Beatrice's lives at risk by refusing to pay for bodyguards to counter the death threats she has received.

Intriguingly though, the words were later redrafted, reportedly over fears that they might damage Miss Mills's divorce settlement.