Huhne's partner loses court action (From Daily Echo)

Chris Huhne's partner Carina Trimingham loses court action against Associated Newspapers

10:14am Thursday 24th May 2012 in News

MP Chris Huhne's partner Carina Trimingham has lost her privacy and harassment claim against Associated Newspapers.

Her affair with the former secretary of state for energy and climate change became public in June 2010, with Mr Huhne leaving his wife of 26 years.

The 44-year-old PR adviser sued for compensation and an injunction over 65 ''highly unpleasant and hurtful'' articles which have appeared since then.

Last month, her lawyers told Mr Justice Tugendhat, at London's High Court, that they constituted a ''cataclysmic interference'' with her private life.

Associated contested the case on the basis that there was an important public interest.

Ms Trimingham's counsel, Matthew Ryder QC, said the Daily Mail had a right to freedom of expression but not to abuse her repeatedly under the guise of exercising that freedom.

The articles referred to the ''life and very different loves of the PR girl in Doc Martens'' and described her as a ''comedy lesbian from central casting''.

Ms Trimingham was in court today but showed no emotion as her claim was dismissed by the judge.

He said: ''Ms Trimingham was not the purely private figure she claims to be. Her reasonable expectation of privacy has become limited.''