From the Guardian
Another controversial superinjunction was overturned today as the England captain John Terry emerged as the footballer who obtained a gagging order preventing the publication of allegations about his private life.
It follows the Trafigura affair in October, when an oil trading company tried to use a pre-existing superinjunction – which prevents even the existence of an injunction from being known – to stop the Guardian reporting a parliamentary question until the subsequent outcry forced Trafigura and their lawyers to back down.
Lawyers for Terry succeeded in applying for a high court injunction on Friday last week, having learnt that a Sunday newspaper – believed to be the News of the World – planned to write about his private life.
Under the terms of a superinjunction agreed by a high court judge on privacy grounds, newspaper groups were unable to reveal who had applied to stop the story coming out. But today the judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, lifted the injunction altogether.
"I do not consider that an interim injunction is necessary or proportionate having regard to the level of gravity of the interference with the private life of the applicant that would occur in the event that there is a publication of the fact of the relationship, or that [the applicant] can rely in this case on the interference with the private life of anyone else," he said.
Although the judge did not name Terry in his order, the Guardian can reveal that he was the player who made the application.
And while the injunction did not cite a specific paper, the judge said that the evidence named News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the News of the World.
Although the terms of the injunction held until 2pm today, details about it had started to leak, first in yesterday's Daily Telegraph, which referred to an unnamed Premier League footballer, and then on Twitter.
The judge criticised Terry's lawyers, Schillings, for not giving newspapers notice of the action they were taking.
"Notice has not been given to any newspaper when it should have been and, as a result, I have not had the benefit of arguments in opposition to the application, which might have assisted me to be satisfied of the matters of which I am not satisfied," he said.
He rejected their argument that they had not notified anyone of the application because their client did not know of any media organisation with a "specific interest in the story".
"The evidence shows that NGN were intending to publish a story about [the applicant] on the Sunday ... In my judgment the interest that NGN did show in publishing a story meant that they should have been given notice."
He also mentioned a letter sent by the Guardian that "illustrates the importance of open justice in a case such as the present one".
The use of the superinjunction is likely to reignite the debate about the use of human rights legislation by public figures to prevent stories being placed into the public domain.
Critics say a number of rulings based on the 1998 Human Rights Act have effectively created a privacy law in the UK, which has always shied away from passing legislation to protect the rich and powerful.
In a landmark case in 2008, high court judge Mr Justice Eady ruled that the News of the World had breached the privacy of Formula One boss Max Mosley. The paper had to pay Mosley damages.
This week the justice secretary, Jack Straw, announced the makeup of the panel being established by his department to investigate reform of libel law, with members including Sunday Times editor John Witherow and Andrew Stephenson, a Carter-Ruck partner.
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Comments
His old man deals the coke
He's mates with poor Wayne
And gives his wife a poke!
Cheat
...oh thats right, he earns £160,000 per week. These people live in a different world.
...and he's got a bigger cock than Wayne Bridge obviously.
Totally agree
And it's not exactly the first time he's cheated on her either but i don't think they were married then. But they're married now, so she should take him for a few million and walk away.
Think they have recently had twins. She should talk to Ray Parlours ex.....
From the same site. I'd noticed a bunch of United fans wearing green and yellow scarves over their nice new replica tops. They really are a bunch of sorry plastic c*nts.
Open science is under threat from corporations keen to see our taxes wasted on medicines that don't work as they will sue scientist who expose the truth.
'Super injunctions' make a mockery of free speech and scientific truth - please support a worthy cause and sign the petition:
http://www.libelreform.org/
BTW: JT, what a mucky pup. But if he lifts the world cup in June, then I just might forgive him!
Was not carrying that much loose change then..........
"Notice has not been given to any newspaper when it should have been and, as a result, I have not had the benefit of arguments in opposition to the application, which might have assisted me to be satisfied of the matters of which I am not satisfied,"
bet that sentence makes Terry's little brain hurt...
You're telling me.
I'd love to pull her pants off with my teeth
the story i have just heard regrds a ove triangle there is nothing short of scandelous
Terry, who is supposedly an avid fan of both Barbara Cartland and Mills & Boon type romantic fiction, feels he has a natural flair for the subject.
The self proclaimed great centre-back knows a hell, of a lot about romantic love affairs. "You have to understand that many of John's friends in football have been involved in liasons with people other that their wives", explained a source close to the player.
"John has always been everyone at Chelsea's 'shoulder to cry on'," he added. "Even on match days you always see queues of player patiently waiting to unload their marriage problems onto John."
"But John always manages to soak up the pressure and sort 'fings out. That's what makes him such a fantastic captain of England and Chelsea"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488232.stm
Oh John Terry, you are a complete c0ck,
Oh John Terry, you've probably shagged my wife,
Oh John Terry, wish I was a thick overpaid twat toooo
Open science is under threat from corporations keen to see our taxes wasted on medicines that don't work as they will sue scientist who expose the truth.
'Super injunctions' make a mockery of free speech and scientific truth - please support a worthy cause and sign the petition:
[url]http://www.libelreform.org/[/url]
BTW: JT, what a mucky pup. But if he lifts the world cup in June, then I just might forgive him![/quote]
Charlie Brooker on super injunctions:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/19/charlie-brooker-super-injunctions
Max Clifford was on the radio this morning and said she had already called him, so it's likely only to be a matter of time.
May be a bell end but still performing on the pitch