EASTLEIGH MP Chris Huhne’s partner Carina Trimingham suffered “cataclysmic interference” with her private life, the High Court has heard.

The PR adviser, whose adulterous affair with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change became public in June 2010, is suing Associated Newspapers for misuse of private information.

Mr Huhne left Vicky Pryce, his wife of 26 years, after the affair was exposed.

Ms Trimingham’s counsel, William Bennett, told Mr Justice Tugendhat that the Daily Mail had been determined to dig into his client’s private life and disclose embarrassing facts.

The paper described Ms Trimingham as 57-year-old Mr Huhne’s “bisexual lover”, “boyish” and said she had had relationships with men and women “but generally not at the same time”.

Mr Bennett said: “It is exposing aspects of the sexual history of the claimant which she says she is entitled to keep confidential and we say there is no public interest in exposing those elements of her.”

The newspaper referred to her brief marriage to a man and published a photo of the 2007 civil partnership ceremony between her and a woman.

Columnist Richard Littlejohn “stuck the boot in”

by referring to 44-year-old Ms Trimingham as a “comedy lesbian from central casting”, the court was told.

Mr Bennett said: “We say any reasonable person would experience a cataclysmic interference with their private life as a result.”

Associated Newspaper’s QC Antony White said Ms Trimingham was not a purely private individual but an experienced communications consultant who helped politicians present their message and image to the public.

She was Mr Huhne’s press officer when he was seeking election as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2007 and in his campaign for re-election as an MP in 2010.

Mr White said that in 2007 Mr Huhne made statements that nothing in the nature of marital infidelity would emerge in his private life.

In March 2008 Mr Huhne and Ms Trimingham began a sexual relationship that was concealed from his family and from Ms Trimingham’s civil partner Julie Bennett.

At the 2010 General Election Mr Huhne was defending a slim majority of 568 votes and his party had been dogged by sexual scandals.

“That’s an important backdrop against which Chris Huhne, with the assistance of Carina Trimingham, had to decide how to present himself to the electorate,” said Mr White. He said that Mr Huhne decided to present himself as a committed family man and produced an election leaflet featuring photos of his wedding day and children.

“Two people knew the truth about that blatant piece of political hypocrisy and those two people, Mr Huhne and the claimant, his press adviser Ms Trimingham, both knew that the message presented to the electorate was a false one,” said Mr White. “In fact, Chris Huhne was not committed to his own family – he was in a relationship which was leading to him leaving his wife – or committed to family values generally.”

He said those facts formed the “core” of an important public interest story which involved “serious hypocrisy by a minister of state”.

Proceeding