Paparazzi 'terrified' Sienna
2008-02-12 19:12
London - Actress Sienna Miller told a
court on Monday of her terror as paparazzi photographers chased
her car across London after a night out at a club.
The 26-year-old said she had tried desperately to evade the
photographers to stop them learning her new address, which was
still a closely guarded secret.
Giving evidence for 30 minutes, Miller said photographers
darted in and out of traffic and nearly blinded her driver by
taking flash pictures.
The paparazzi cut up cars and buses and dangerously overtook
on blind corners in a bid to score another picture, she told
West London Magistrates Court.
"I felt scared and threatened. Their actions were
aggressive, to say the least," Miller told the court.
"I believed it was particularly frenzied on this occasion
because they did not know where I lived and they were
particularly keen to find out so they could follow me more and
get the pictures they wanted."
Lying slouched in the backseat of her Mercedes as the
photographers drove like "lunatics" trying to take her picture,
Miller said she rang her boyfriend pleading for him to help her
to escape.
Miller was in the witness box as the key defence witness in
a case involving her ex-boyfriend's brother, Otis Ferry, who is
accused of criminal damage.
Ferry, the son of Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, was with
his brother, Isaac - Miller's then boyfriend - and the
actress, as they left Boujis nightclub in west London, last
February.
'Taking the law into his own hands'
Miller, one of the most photographed women in Britain, had
been celebrating at the exclusive nightclub, favoured by London
socialites and celebrities, during a private function after
being asked to present an award at the Baftas - Britain's
answer to the Oscars.
Ferry, 25, from Shrewsbury, western England, is accused of
"taking the law into his own hands" by forcibly removing the
keys from two photographers' cars.
The court was previously told that the photographers were
stranded for several hours, costing them lucrative income, as
well as £180 for new keys.
Dressed in a dark grey mini-skirt suit with her long blonde
hair tied up, Miller gave her testimony just hours after she
missed out on a prize at the British film awards, the Baftas.
Ferry, who is on bail, denies two counts of criminal damage.
He had earlier told the court the photographers had been
driving "like lunatics" and denied he was showing off to Miller
in a drunken rage.
District Judge David Simpson is expected to return a verdict
later on Monday.