A photographer who took topless pictures with beautiful actress Cameron Diaz in her early days of career was found guilty yesterday and he could face a sentence of up to six years in prison.

After four hours of deliberations in two days, the seven women and five men from the jury found photographer John Rutter, 42, guilty of attempted grand theft, forgery and perjury. An extortion charge against Rutter was dropped before the trial began.

The prosecutors claimed that, in 2003, John approached Diaz, offering her a staggering $3.5 million for the photos, trying to extort her, just days before the release of "Charlie's Angels: Fully Loaded".

Also, the signature on a model release to give ownership of the photos to photographer John Rutter was forged. Six days ago, forensic document expert Bruce Greenwood testified that some letters from the signature were "slanted completely different" from the handwriting samples he received from Diaz.

At the same time, George Reis, a forensic image analyst formerly of the Newport Beach Police Department, declared that Diaz's signature appeared to have been Photoshopped from the earlier picture.

Rutter, who was free on $US250,000 bond during the trial, was taken directly into custody after the verdict. The sentence was set for September 15.

Cameron Diaz was not present in the court for the verdict. Nevertheless, she responded in a statement, by saying "I am very gratified that justice has been served."