High court extends gagging order to prevent reporting of actor’s affair

Judge extends injunction brought by ‘world-famous celebrity’ to keep details of sexual relationship with former escort secret The high court has extended a gagging order obtained by a leading actor to prevent reporting of his “sexual relationship” with a former escort girl. The married actor, described by judge Mr Justice King as a “world-famous celebrity”, brought a privacy injunction to stop Helen Wood revealing details of his extramarital affair in April. In a judgment handed down on Friday, King agreed to uphold the gagging order but relaxed rules over how he can be identified. The actor – who has admitted to the affair – can now be identified as a “leading actor” and a “world-famous celebrity”, King said in the judgment. The media can also refer to the affair as a “sexual relationship”. The judgment was published online on Friday but was later withdrawn by the court due to copyright issues, it is understood. The judge added: “It seems to me that this is material to the public debate about the class of person who is seeking these injunctions and the status they are seeking to protect when preventing the publication of private sexual encounters.” No anonymity was sought by Wood, who has previously claimed to have slept with Wayne Rooney. Wood had offered information about her relationship with the actor to the Sun. Granting the injunction, King concluded that the actor was “likely to establish that he has a reasonable expectation that that which he does in his private life by way of sexual encounters, albeit with a prostitute, should be kept private”. The judge also pointed out that neither Wood nor the Sun had argued that publishing details about the affair was in the public interest. The injunction is the latest to be heard in the high court following a huge storm over the controversial gagging orders in May and June. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Privacy & the media Media law Privacy Injunctions Newspapers Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.