Heather Mills told Ryan Seacrest “’If I was a gold digger I would be a very wealthy woman now, and I’m not,’” on his radio show. That’s classic. Mills recently won her assault trial against British photographer Jay Kaycappa, who grabbed Mills and spun her around in order to get a better picture of her. Mills had been bicycling with a group of people to her seaside home. The paparazzi had been following them, and Mills got separated from her group in a pedestrian passageway that was underground. Photographers surrounded her on either side of the tunnel.

I felt concerned…because I had one there and one there and I felt like a trapped animal,” testified Mills, who was not in court Wednesday to hear the verdict.

“I felt him pull me round and then run back to get my picture. He yanked me round. I was facing the wall and he was pulling me round because I was not letting him take my picture. He then pulled me round and took my pictures.”

[From E News]

I’m no Heather Mills fan, but that is a completely jerky thing to do to someone. No matter what everyone deserves their personal space, and you don’t get to touch someone, let alone move them around as though they’re there only for your benefit. The photographer gave conflicting accounts to the police.

Prosecutors presented two conflicting statements given by Kaycappa to the police, one saying, “So I spun her around, I must have spun the bike around as well,” and the other saying, “I wish to clarify—what I actually said was, I would find it hard to spin her around when she was on the bike.”

Kaycappa, who denied the charges, was also convicted of assaulting Mills’ friend, Mark Payne, the following evening when he showed up to take more pictures of Mills.”

[From E News]

He sounds like a relentless jerk. As terrible and aggressive as the paparazzi can be here, I can’t believe the way they behave in England. As much as I’m not a fan of Heather Mills, I’m glad she pressed charges against the guy and that she won. No one deserves to be manhandled like that. My favorite part of the trial is when Mills said that they should just send a pack of journalists after Saddam Hussein, noting “They find everything.” It’s a funny point, made funnier still by the fact that they found and executed Saddam quite a long time ago. Clearly she’s had other things on her mind. Like not being a gold digger.