A photographer convicted of assaulting Heather Mills won an appeal Tuesday because Mills didn't attend a court hearing.

Jay Kaycappa had been sentenced to 140 hours of community service for allegedly grabbing Mills by her shoulder and taking her photograph in 2006.

The cast of the television show "The Class", (L-R) Heather Goldenhersh, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andrea Anders, Jon Bernthal, Lizzy Caplan, Sean Maguire, and Jason Ritter, pose together as they arrive at the 33rd annual People's Choice Awards in Los Angeles January 9, 2007. REUTERS/Fred Prouser (UNITED STATES)

A prosecutor told the court in Lewes that Mills, the estranged wife of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, wasn't available for the hearing, and that he believed she was somewhere in the U.S.

However, Judge Richard Brown said he had received a document from a doctor saying Mills was suffering from stress.

Kaycappa had been convicted of assaulting Mills and her friend Mark Payne after encountering them in a pedestrian tunnel. Mills, Payne and two other men were cycling to the south coast city of Brighton at the time.

Mills and McCartney were granted a preliminary decree of divorce last week, and a final decree could be granted by the end of next month.