People News

Naomi Campbell settles lawsuit

Jan 16, 2009, 9:45 GMT

Naomi Campbell has settled a lawsuit alleging she hit and verbally abused her former maid. In the case which was settled out of court, Gaby Gibson claimed the British supermodel struck her on several occasions and called her insulting names while she worked for her between November 2005 and January 2006. © A. Gilbert / PR Photos

In the case which was settled out of court, Gaby Gibson claimed the British supermodel struck her on several occasions and called her insulting names while she worked for her between November 2005 and January 2006. © A. Gilbert / PR PhotosIn the case which was settled out of court, Gaby Gibson claimed the British supermodel struck her on several occasions and called her insulting names while she worked for her between November 2005 and January 2006. Romanian-born Gaby branded Naomi a "violent super-bigot" and alleged the model bullied her about her poor grasp of English. Gaby's lawsuit - which was filed at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York in November 2006 - also claimed the 38-year-old beauty had threatened to charge her with theft after she couldn't find a pair of designer jeans. Although the terms of the settlement are undisclosed, Naomi's lawyer David Breitbart said: "Everybody's happy with the way it ended and everybody's happy that it's over."Naomi has previously had legal run-ins with her personal staff. In 2000, she pleaded guilty to hitting her personal assistant Georgina Galanis with a phone and in 2005 she was alleged to have slapped and hit another assistant, Amanda Brack, around the head with a Blackberry organiser. Naomi was sentenced to community service and ordered to attend anger management classes by a New York court in 2007 after hitting maid Ana Scolavino over the head with a mobile phone. In April 2008, Naomi was arrested and charged on counts of assaulting a police officer and using abusive and threatening behaviour towards cabin crew at Heathrow airport in London after one of her bags was lost by airline British Airways. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and banned from flying with British Airways for life.