Mills Shutterbug Swatted

Thu., Aug. 16, 2007 1:14 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Heather Mills can get back on her bike.

A Magistrates' Court in Brighton, England, on Thursday ordered a freelance photographer to perform 140 hours of community service and pay Mills $200 in fines for attacking her last summer during a bicycle ride.

Jay Kaycappa, 32, was arrested in July 2006 after he grabbed Mills as she was cycling to her seaside residence in East Sussex, near Brighton.

During a three-day trial last month, Mills testified that she felt like a "trapped animal" when she tried to duck a horde of paparazzi and wound up being cornered by Kaycappa in an underground pedestrian tunnel. Mills said the photographer latched on to her right shoulder and spun her around to get a better shot of her face.

The U.K. shutterbug, who has maintained his innocence throughout, could have received jail time, but he found an unlikely ally in Mills, who told the court that she thought such a sentence was excessive and that community service would probably "sort him out."

Kaycappa was also ordered to pay $100 to Mills' friend Mark Payne. Kaycappa was convicted of roughing up Payne the following evening while trying to snap even more photos of the 39-year-old model, activist and former Dancing with the Stars hoofer.

Kaycappa's attorney has promised to appeal the verdict. The paparazzo is reportedly no stranger to such incidents—his rap sheet indicates he has 132 previous offenses and 20 similar convictions under his belt.

There was no immediate comment from Mills' camp following Thursday's sentence. After Kaycappa was found convicted on July 11, her spokesman said, "Heather is delighted that justice has been done and hopes that the photographers who pursue her on a daily basis will now leave her and her daughter alone."

This isn't the first time Mills has taken on the tabloid culture that has turned her life upside down since she hooked up with McCartney.

In April, she won undisclosed damages from Britain's Sunday Mirror for a story headlined "Beatled," which claimed she had been exposed in court as "a fantasist and a liar."

Mills married McCartney in 2002 and filed for divorce in May 2006. The couple, who have a three-year-old daughter, Beatrice, are embroiled in an ongoing battle over the division of their assets.