Star gagging order reasons revealed

Star gagging order reasons revealed - The Guardian

Press Association, Saturday July 23 2011

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 is a "leading actor" and, if they wished, "a world famous celebrity", as well as being married and a father.

In a judgment released on Friday, 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 allows 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 is 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.

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