AAL Bizarre: Injunction returns to block tale of ménage-a-trois

Mar 31, 2016

Written By Jack J Collins, Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

The Sun on Sunday has been prevented from running a story about an entertainer having an extra-marital affair with another couple. Whilst in itself, this is not anything particularly outrageous, it is expected to provoke a new round of legal battles between celebrity lawyers and the media over privacy.

As such, the particular individual, who is only allowed to be referred to by the initials PJS, is a well-known public figure in the entertainment business. His wife, referred to in the case as YMA, is also prominent within the industry.

More than four years ago, PJS had a “three-way sexual encounter” with another couple, and this January, the couple approached the Sun on Sunday, which planned to publish the story. They in turn, contacted the lawyers of PJS, who initiated a courtroom battle.

The court of appeal has recently decided that the newspaper cannot publish the story, for a variety of reasons. The first of these pointed out was that both PJS and YMA maintain that they have “an open relationship”, and because PJS had an expectation that his sexual encounter would remain private.

The argument from the QC for News Group Newspapers was that because PJS and YMA had put their relationship into the public domain, that it was in the public interest that the newspaper would publish details of the PJS’ sexual encounters with other people.

This was dismissed however, on the grounds that they had never explicitly claimed to be a monogamous relationship, and the judge observed that the two were a “committed couple,” stating that “on the evidence of both of them, the claimant’s occasional sexual encounters with others do not detract from that commitment.”

Further to this, the judge stated that there was the important position of the couple’s children to consider. He claimed that the publication of such a story would inflict a “media storm” on the family, and that the children would be affected by such.

“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,” Lord Justice Jackson stated. “That is a factor to place in the balance.”

Resurrection of the injunction?

Since the Leveson enquiry into the ethics applied by the press and the wider media as a whole, and following the restrictions placed by judges on superinjunctions (an injunction meaning that even the reporting of an injunction, in the first place, cannot take place), the cases for injunctions had all but fallen away.

According to recent statistics, however, that number is now once again on the rise. The judgement in favour of the privacy of the individual is likely to mean that there will be another rush in celebrities looking to protect the anonymity of their private life.

Only time will tell if this case will be the turning point that allows more and more high-profile figures to protect their own sexual encounters from the public eye, but as Aidan Wills, of Matrix Chambers, said to The Guardian: “This case demonstrates that the courts are willing to take a liberal view of how an individual chooses to conduct his or her private sexual life.”

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