Lawyers warn that any move to scrap ‘celebrity threesome’ injunction would be ‘devastating’
Supreme Court judges have been warned by lawyers that any move to dissolve an injunction barring reports on a "celebrity threesome’ would be ‘devastaing’ and an abdication to ‘the rule of the press".
As a war of words escalates between supporters and opponents of the injunction the court has once again deferred judgement on the case, which has exposed the limitations of legal authority in an age of globalised media and the internet.
The case centres on a case between The Sun on Sunday and a claimant who can be referred to only as PJS, whom it is alleged engaged in extramarital sex with a couple four years ago.
An injunction was initially sanctioned on the grounds that coverage of the affair would be harmful to the family’s children but The Sun countered that judges were not there to act as "moral arbiters".
Desmond Browne QC, who represents the claimant, said: “This case has been hailed by some as the death-knell of the privacy injunction. We hope that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
“The court needs to consider whether we are living in a country under the rule of the law or under the rule of the press.”
Disputing this version of events Gavin Millar QC, acting on behalf of News Group newspapers, said the dissemination of information online was "not something the court can prevent".