NEW YORK — A bitter 20-year battle between Yoko Ono and a former assistant of John Lennon ended Friday when the two reached a settlement over hundreds of photos and other items the assistant stole from the family during the Beatle's final years.

As part of the settlement, Frederic Seaman, 49, who worked for the Lennons between 1979 and 1981, relinquished his copyright claim to 374 photos he took of the family and issued a public apology to Ono and her son Sean Lennon, who accompanied his mother to court each day of the four-day trial.

"After more than 20 years, it is time for me to ask your forgiveness for my actions. It is impossible to undo what has taken place but it stops here and now," Seaman said in a statement read in court by Ono's lawyer, Paul LiCalsi.

After LiCalsi read the terms of the settlement into the record, U.S. District Judge Leonard sand asked Seaman and Ono each to take the stand to confirm they agreed with the deal. Seaman issued curt responses to sand' questioning, and Ono nodded politely. She left the stand in tears.

Frederic Seaman outside federal court in Manhattan Monday

"I feel very very happy and satisfied with the results," said Ono, 69, outside the courtroom. "It was difficult for me to sit through, but it was something I had to do."

Some of the most emotional moments of the trial came when Ono's lawyers showed photos and video of Lennon during his last year. The courtroom caught rare glimpses of the Lennons' most private and final moments together. During the playing of one video, shot by Lennon and showing Ono and a then-5-year-old Sean playing in the grass, the mother and her son, now 26, locked eyes.

LiCalsi said that the smoking gun in his case was Seaman's own diaries from the time he worked for the Lennons. In the diaries, he meticulously detailed his intention to exploit his job for future profit, through sale of a book on the family and publication of Lennon's personal manuscripts, letters and diary entries.

Ono obtained Seaman's diaries in 1982 from an anonymous source, along with copies of the diaries he had stolen from Lennon, in exchange for "a large sum of cash," LiCalsi said. "Luckily we had the originals for 20 years."

According to LiCalsi, the lawyers worked on the deal until 2:30 a.m. Friday and didn't finalize it until 10 minutes before it was announced.

If the case had gone to the jury, as it was expected to Friday, Seaman could have been forced to pay Ono $74,000 in profits he gleaned from sale of Lennon memorabilia and photos.

"I feel that Mr. Seaman has made a career out of exploiting this family," said juror Anna Crafton, 27, a graduate student in Manhattan and an admitted Beatles fan. "I'm very pleased with the outcome."

In 1983, Seaman pleaded guilty to larceny for pinching the diaries and other items from the Lennon home, and received five years' probation on the condition that he return the stolen goods.

Seaman's lawyer, Glenn Wolther, said outside the courthouse that the settlement was a fair one given the circumstances. "The judge's decision yesterday dealt a critical setback to our case," he noted, referring to two rulings in which Judge sand validated a confidentiality agreement Seaman had signed with the Lennons, and ruled that he had breached it.

Seaman did win two minor victories, however, in an otherwise lopsided deal. As part of the settlement, Ono will return Seaman's original diaries to him but will be permitted to keep copies. Seaman will also receive a photo credit each time one of his best photographs — a shot of John and Sean Lennon on the beach in Bermuda in 1980 — is used.

Seaman will also be prevented from exploiting, commercially or otherwise, any "information, fact, anecdotes or other statements relating in any way to John Lennon, Yoko Ono Lennon, Sean Lennon," the settlement reads.

sand told the jury he didn’t think there would have been a settlement if the case hadn't gone to trial. "Hopefully this is the end of a bitter chapter in their lives" said the avuncular jurist.

After court adjourned, Ono ducked into the jury room to personally thank each of the eight jurors, until a court deputy ordered her to leave. "That's the kind of thing you could be arrested for," said the deputy, who later smiled as Ono offered her, too, a personal thank you.

Sean Lennon, who entertained courtroom observers Thursday by making sketches of some of the witnesses, said he was relieved to have the case settled. "It dragged on longer than I ever could have imagined. I'm just glad it's over."