Paper fights model privacy ruling

Campbell said she felt "shocked, angry, betrayed and violated" by the story

LONDON, England -- A British tabloid newspaper is set to learn if it has won an appeal against a legal order to pay damages for a story about supermodel Naomi Campbell's drugs battle.

The 31-year-old model won £3,500 pounds ($5,493) damages from the London-based The Mirror in March.

The court case centred on revelations she was attending meetings of therapy group Narcotics Anonymous.

On Wednesday the Court of Appeal in London is due to rule whether the High Court was right to award the model damages against the newspaper for breach of confidence and invasion of privacy.

Judge Michael Morland said during the High Court hearing that the Mirror had "trashed her as a person in a highly offensive and hurtful manner."

Opening the newspaper's appeal earlier this month, the Mirror's lawyer Desmond Browne referred to Campbell's "notorious conduct" and "tantrums" and the way she had publicly lied about her drug addiction.

'Complete joke'

The appeal centres on whether celebrities can gag the media over their private lives and how far celebrity stories can be regarded as being of legitimate public interest.

In her original evidence, Campbell admitted being a drug addict but said the front-page story and photograph showing her leaving the NA meeting left her feeling "shocked, angry, betrayed and violated."

Mirror editor Piers Morgan, speaking after the High Court decision, said he believed the public had a right to know details of Campbell's private life. "I am quite happy to expose her," he said.

He said: "I think the whole thing is a complete joke... I was under the impression that we had exposed her as a drug addict, after she had repeatedly denied it, and that she had received treatment, and the judge said we can do that."

When asked whether he would appeal, Morgan said: "I'm bored with the whole thing.

"To be honest I wish the judge had ordered us never to write another story about Naomi Campbell, because the thought of having to write more stories about her drives me mad."