View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Media Law
July 25, 2011

Judge upholds privacy injunction for ‘leading actor’

By PA Media Lawyer

A judge has made public his reasons for upholding a gagging order which granted anonymity to an actor who had sex with a prostitute whose clients allegedly included Wayne Rooney.

Mr Justice King continued the privacy injunction, originally granted to NEJ on April 9, at a hearing held behind closed doors four days later at London’s High Court.

But he varied its original terms to allow the media to say that NEJ was a “leading actor” and, if they wished, “a world famous celebrity”, as well as being married and a father.

In his judgment he said: “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.”

He said that it allowed the public to identify the class of person to whom NEJ did not belong – for example a politician or other holder of public office – and to enable them to understand what was not being restricted, such as publication of wrongdoing in public office.

No anonymity was sought from the judge by Helen Wood, the target of the injunction, which restrained her disclosing private information relating to sexual relationships between NEJ and any woman in Dublin in December 2009.

Ms Wood is the call girl who reportedly had sex with Rooney and another escort, Jennifer Thompson, before England’s World Cup campaign last summer.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The judge said that NEJ accepted that he had had sexual encounters with Ms Wood who had offered information to The Sun.

He was satisfied that NEJ 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”.

He said no-one had argued that there was any countervailing public interest in publishing NEJ’s identity or all the details of the sexual encounter.

Ruling that NEJ was entitled to the interim order “in principle”, he said: “This is not a case in which it has been submitted that because of any public stance taken by the applicant with regard to his marital status or with regard to issues of morality, that he should be exposed in the public interest as, for example, a hypocrite.”

But he accepted that there was a live public debate about the justification for the granting of such injunctions “which can have the effect of suppressing from public scrutiny the private conduct of public persons, which some might think offend notions of social morality according to one’s view of social morality”.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network