Naomi Campbell: 'I was war crime scapegoat'

Naomi Campbell has argued that she was used as a "scapegoat" during Charles Taylor's war trial.

The supermodel last month took the stand at The Hague, where the ex-president of Liberia is being accused of war crimes. It was alleged that Campbell received conflict diamonds from Taylor in 1997.

Campbell told Sky News: "What you need to understand is I was not on trial. I was forced - subpoenaed to testify - nothing to do with me.

"This trial has been going on for how many years? No-one cared to write about it. You bring Naomi Campbell to the stand the whole world knows. So as far as I was concerned, I was used as a scapegoat."

She added: "I do not think what [Taylor] did to his people is correct. I did not condone that and I will never condone that.

"But I do not see why I have to sit here and hear around everywhere I go in the world like this was like my trial. I was a witness. I told and remembered what I could to my ability - and it was 13 years ago.

"I am sensitive but I don't want to buy into negativity, and I'm not going to buy into it. For me, buying into it would be stopping what I'm doing and completely disappear, which is not me, because then I wouldn't be able to help the people that I do help. And that's what counts to me today."