CAROLINE WHITE
Takes heat on the stand.
The modeling agent who tore down Naomi Campbell’s testimony had her turn to squirm on the stand yesterday when lawyers revealed that she threw a crass “blood diamond” bash to mock the supermodel’s testimony about tainted gems she allegedly received from an accused war criminal.
A day after Caroline White helped shame Campbell on a world stage, a lawyer for former Liberian president Charles Taylor produced Facebook postings and pictures of the tasteless party with the hope of weakening White the same way she cut down Campbell.
The photos show White and her stable of young models yukking it up and sipping wine at a party. The photos, under the heading “blood diamond night,” included postings about Campbell, who said the subpoena compelling her to testify was “an inconvenience.”
“When she said that, the whole agency laughed,” one of the partygoers, Annie Wilshaw, posted on the page. “Can’t wait for Carole to bring her down on Monday at The Hague.”
That’s exactly what White went on to do, double-teaming with actress Mia Farrow to rebut Campbell’s claim that she had no clue that a gift bag was filled with diamonds, or that they came from Taylor.
But Taylor’s lead lawyer Courtenay Griffiths said White — who fell out with Campbell last year in a contract dispute — has an ax to grind, and that the Facebook photos prove it.
White denied the accusation.
“I had drinks with Annie but I never styled anything as a ‘blood diamond party,’ ” White said.
“I’m sure that there was some discussion about Naomi Campbell’s testimony. However . . . it wasn’t a party about that,” she said.
Taylor, 62, is being tried in The Hague for a list of war crimes, including charges that he took illegally mined diamonds as payment for weapons used in Sierra Leone’s bloody civil war.
Campbell received the gift bag after a 1997 charity dinner with Taylor and others in South Africa. According to police in South Africa, Campbell could face charges for being in possession of the uncut diamonds, a criminal offense in South Africa with penalties ranging from a hefty fine to 10 years in prison for repeat offenders, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Authorities said tests have not determined that the diamonds given to Campbell came from Sierra Leone. It is also unclear if the model knew the gems may have been illegal. She turned them over to a Nelson Mandela children’s charity.
Campbell, in a statement yesterday, addressed the backlash over her testimony.
“I’ve no motive here,” she said. “Nothing to gain. I am a black woman who has and will always support good causes, especially relating to Africa. I’ve never taken any of the jobs offered to me . . . from companies that were for apartheid in South Africa.”