A super injunction has been issued for a world famous actor to gag the press about his liaisons with Wayne Rooney prostitute, Helen Wood.
The actor’s wife is believed to be devastated by the revelations and as a result, their marriage on the rocks.
The star confessed to his infidelity after his name was leaked on a profile set up on Twitter. It led to millions of people identifying him, even though the press couldn’t publish anything.
“Since then his name has been passed around the internet at record speed,” a source told The Sun newspaper.
“Millions have seen it and the fact is that there’s no hiding place for him any more. It’s reached a stage where his wife or any member of his family can easily find out the sordid details with a couple of clicks on Google.”
A string of other celebrities rumoured to have taken out injunctions to protect their reputations, were also revealed on Twitter.
The well-known blogger who caused the frenzy listed 14 famous people, further highlighted the absurdity of court gagging orders which dozens of cheating celebrities have obtained in an attempt to conceal their sexual and other misdemeanours.
Millions of computer users have now found the leaked names of sports stars and TV celebrities on the internet.
As Twitter users hunted down their names, the social networking site experienced its highest-ever volume of traffic in the UK.
It was rumoured on the site last Sunday that Jemima Khan had obtained an injunction to suppress embarrassing photos of her with Jeremy Clarkson.
And yesterday, another Twitter user went even further, naming more names.
Among a series of explosive references, the blogger referred to a “five-a-side team” of footballers.
Another posting refers to rumours about a well-known married public figure who hushed up his infidelity on the grounds that his family would be upset to learn of his sexual adventures.
The blogger even boasted that the founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, has promised not to gag the tweeters who claim to unmask celebrities who have injunctions.
Stone, 37, believes free speech is “essential” to the site, and has said: “We don’t always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content.”
Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, said this week that the internet was “making a mockery” of privacy laws and pledged to investigate how regulations could be improved.
Prime Minister David has ordered a review of the laws. He believes that unelected High Court judges are wrongly making a privacy law by the back door using the Human Rights Act.
Yesterday MPs called on the Government to join forces with media organisations and challenge at least one of the current injunctions in the Supreme Court – to see if the higher body of judges is more inclined to support press freedom.
Jimmy Wales, American founder of the internet reference site Wikipedia, added to the debate by telling Radio 4’s PM programme: “I think laws like this are patently absurd.
“It’s a completely ridiculous approach to questions of privacy. I think these laws are grave injustices and human rights violations and should be done away with as soon as possible.
“People should be allowed to publish truthful, factual information about public figures.”
In theory, someone could be sentenced to two years in jail breaching the restrictions of a privacy injunction.
But sources claimed that the latest Twitter blogger is based outside the UK and not afraid of the consequences of busting any injunctions issued by the High Court.
