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Naomi Campbell faces five air rage charges at Heathrow
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor29.05.08
Supermodel Naomi Campbell was today charged with five offences over an alleged air rage incident at Heathrow.
The charges, which include three offences of assaulting police, follow an incident last month when she was removed from a flight for Los Angeles after an alleged row over lost luggage.
Campbell, 38, is also accused of one offence of threatening and abusing cabin crew on board the British Airways plane and of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
She will appear at Uxbridge magistrates' court on 20 June and faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
The decision to charge the supermodel - first revealed by the Evening Standard last week - was confirmed today after Campbell reported to Heathrow police station today to answer bail over the incident.
She arrived just after 11.30am wearing a pinstriped dark suit and sunglasses in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes and spent half an hour inside before leaving without comment.
Moments later, the Crown Prosecution Service formally announced the charges in a statement, saying: "The CPS has authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Naomi Campbell with five offences in relation to incidents that occurred on a stationary aircraft and within Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, London, on 3 April 2008.
"Ms Campbell has today been charged with three offences of assaulting a constable, one offence of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress and one offence of using threatening, abusive words or behaviour to cabin crew.
"These are summary offences which can only be tried at a magistrates' court." The supermodel's lawyer, Simon Nicholls, also issued a statement outsidethe police station in which he said that Campbell regretted the prosecutors' decision and hoped the case would be dealt with swiftly.
"Miss Campbell is bitterly disappointed that the prosecutors have advised her she is to be prosecuted for various offences," he said.
"Prosecutors in this case have decided she needs to be prosecuted in the magistrates' court. She respects that decision and she hopes this matter is dealt with expeditiously."
The alleged incident occurred after the supermodel was told by staff in the first-class cabin that one her bags had been lost.
They told her that she would have to leave the flight, causing Campbell to allegedly respond with an angry tirade which led to police being called.
Reports claimed she had yelled "a***holes. You are all a***holes" at police and described BA staff as "bloody fools" as she allegedly lashed out verbally and physically.
Female staff reportedly collapsed in tears as the incident escalated. After armed officers arrived, she was eventually taken off the plane in handcuffs.
Although there has been no official confirmation, BA is understood to have imposed a lifetime ban on Campbell.
She was initially reported to have pleaded with the airline to overturn the ban, claiming that she has spent tens of thousands of pounds with the airline, but later told a Brazilian newspaper that she was boycotting BA, not the other way round.
Last night the supermodel was seen partying at a birthday party for socialite Tamara Beckwith at Beach Blanket Babylon, Notting Hill.
Reader views (3)
She's now been let off so many times isn't it about time she actually served some time in a "proper" jail? It might actually scare some sense into that arrogant little mind of hers.
- Elsie Zipp, Hampton
This is a disaster on all counts. The truth is no one will be served by going to court; Naomi won't due to the bad publicity; the public won't due to the backlog of the courts; and the constables won't because when it is all said and done British Airways can result in added lawsuits due to the Terminal 5 Fiasco. This case should go away quietly.
- John Iii, Philadelphia, USA
Just another moron giving blacks a bad name
- Jaime Gamell-Riera, madrid, Spain
