An Appeals Court has ruled that a privacy order protecting a celebrity couple who engaged in ‘extramarital activities’ can now be lifted.
The injunction, which was originally granted in January, barred tabloid newspapers and gossip websites from publishing the details of a ‘three-way sexual encounter’ involving an anonymous man Court papers have dubbed ‘PJS’.
But London’s Court of Appeal ruled on Monday that the injunction can now be lifted, despite the fact that they have not yet themselves released the names of the celebrities in question.
It is expected that PJS will request a stay pending further legal action – and the case could very well end up before the Supreme Court.
The initial January ruling, which first enforced the privacy order, found that identifying PJS and his partner in the press would ‘generate a media storm’ – affecting both the couple themselves, and their young children.
“The children would become the subject of increased press attention, with all that that entails.
Furthermore, even if the children do not suffer harassment in the short-term, they are bound to learn about these matters from school friends and the internet in due course,” the ruling said.
The names have already been released by publications in the US, Scotland and elsewhere and the injunction currently only applies in England and Wales.
The injunction marked the first of its kind to reach a British Court of Appeal in five years.