David Eady
Encyclopedia
Sir David Eady styled The Hon. Mr Justice Eady, in legal writing Eady J, is a High Court judge
in England and Wales
. As a judge (since 1997) he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy
cases.
He was called to the bar in 1966 and became a Queen's Counsel
in 1983. He was a member of One Brick Court chambers
and, as a lawyer, he specialised in media law until appointed a High Court Judge, Queen's Bench division, on 21 April 1997.
, Essex, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge
.
, "a legal chambers known for its libel work," and specialised in media law. The Daily Telegraph
described him as "a leading courtroom defender of red-top journalism, much in demand as a barrister who could be relied on to uphold the freedom of the tabloids to expose the private lives of public figures."
Examples include Eady's defence of The Sun
when the Coronation Street
actor Bill Roache sued over taunts that he was "boring". He also represented Singapore
politician
Lee Kuan Yew
in his libel suits against the late opposition politician Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam
. Eady was unsuccessful in 1984 when he represented Derek Jameson
in an action against the BBC
over a critical profile of Jameson on Radio 4
's Week Ending
(broadcast on 22 March 1980). Eady had advised his instructing solicitor Peter Carter-Ruck
that the case was "high risk" but the letter had not been passed on to Jameson. In the late 1980s Eady was appointed to the Calcutt Committee presided over by David Calcutt
, which considered how to police the media.
called him "the High Court's favourite libel judge". According to The Times
, Eady "has delivered a series of rulings that have bolstered privacy laws and encouraged libel tourism
." One commentator said that "he has interpreted the European Convention on Human Rights
in a restrictive way. In effect he is developing a privacy law." He has also been repeatedly criticised by Private Eye
on similar grounds.
Eady is, according to the Daily Telegraph, "something of an enigma to his colleagues. He has a reputation for being distant and sometimes difficult in court, but can be immensely charming off duty." In April 2008, The Times
commented: "He may be just one of more than 100 High Court judges but Sir David Eady is nonetheless arguably more influential than any of his colleagues. Almost single-handedly he is creating new privacy law."
to obtain legal remedies for invasion of privacy in Kaye v Robertson
as one of his concerns, saying that there was: "a serious gap in the jurisprudence of any civilised society, if such a gross intrusion could happen without redress." In an interview with Joshua Rozenberg
in June 2011, Eady explained that courts assessing issues related to privacy must apply the test used in Von Hannover v Germany
(2004), where the decisive factor is whether publication contributes to “a debate of general interest to society”.
In December 2004 Eady ruled in favor of MP George Galloway
after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on documents found by journalist David Blair
in Baghdad. The documents appeared to show that Galloway had received money from Saddam Hussein
's regime. In its defence, the newspaper did not attempt to claim justification, seeking to prove the truth of the defamatory reports. Instead, the paper sought to argue the public interest defence established in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd. However Eady did not accept this defence saying the suggestion that Galloway was guilty of "treason", "in Saddam's pay", and being "Saddam's little helper" caused him to conclude "the newspaper was not neutral but both embraced the allegations with relish and fervour and went on to embellish them". Additionally Galloway had not been given a fair or reasonable opportunity to make inquiries or meaningful comment upon the documents before they were published.
In 2005 Eady prevented author Niema Ash from revealing certain details about singer Loreena McKennitt
, on the grounds that they would violate her right to privacy as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights
, and furthermore that, as McKennitt's friend, Ash owed the singer a duty of confidence.
In December 2006 Eady granted an order to "[a] prominent figure in the sports world who had had an affair with another man's wife", preventing the betrayed husband from naming him in the media.
In the 2006 case of Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe
Eady ruled in favor of the plaintiff, a Saudi Arabian banker. The Wall Street Journal had listed Jameel among several Saudi businessmen who were allegedly being monitored for support of terrorism. In 2009 the Law Lords overturned Eady's ruling, with Lord Hoffman accusing Mr Justice Eady of being "hostile to the spirit of Reynolds", a reference to the public interest defence established in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd.
Mr Justice Eady entered a default judgment
in favour of Khalid bin Mahfouz
in his "libel tourism
" case against American scholar Rachel Ehrenfeld
for documenting his alleged financial support of terrorism in Funding Evil
. On 1 May 2008, in reaction to this case, the New York State Legislature passed a law that "offers New Yorkers greater protection against libel judgments in countries whose laws are inconsistent with the freedom of speech granted by the United States Constitution.".
In 2008, Eady presided over Max Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
, awarding Max Mosley
damages of 60,000 pounds for invasion of privacy
after the News of the World
exposed his participation in a sado-masochistic orgy.
In 2009, Mr. Justice Eady issued a judgment that Google
was not liable for defamatory content accessible through or cached by Google search
.
In June 2009, Eady ruled that Richard Horton
, a detective constable who wrote an anonymous blog called "NightJack" could be named, as he had "no reasonable expectation of privacy". The blog was described as a "behind-the-scenes commentary on policing".
That same year, Eady ruled in a judgement in a libel case by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) against Simon Singh
. Singh had called the BCA's claims that spinal manipulation
could cure children with colic, ear infections, asthma, sleeping and feeding conditions, and prolonged crying "bogus". Eady ruled that this meant deliberately false, meaning Singh would have to prove that the BCA's members were being deliberately deceitful, not merely making a false or unsupported claim. Singh filed an appeal against this ruling. In April 2010, Singh won his appeal, the ruling saying Eady had "erred in his approach", and was inviting the court "to become an Orwellian ministry of truth".
Mr Justice Eady has also given judgment in a number of high profile media trials involving among others Madonna
, Josh Hartnett
, Marco Pierre White
, Sara Keays
, Roger Alton
, Carol Sarler and Sienna Miller
.
In April and May 2011, David Eady was the presiding judge in CTB v News Group Newspapers
. The case involved an anonymous footballer (CTB), who had been involved in an extra-marital relationship with Imogen Thomas
. Following the repeated posting of tweets
naming the footballer as Ryan Giggs
, and media coverage in the Scottish
press, the anonymised injunction was effectively ended. Despite this, on 23 May 2011 Mr Justice Eady upheld the injunction in the High Court. Later the same day John Hemming MP named Ryan Giggs in Parliament, which finally broke the injunction.
has been particularly critical of Eady. In a November 2008 article he accused the judge of "arrogant and amoral judgments", and went on to complain that
Dacre was also particularly critical of Eady's ruling in the Max Mosley case
, describing it as a frightening example of what "one judge with a subjective and highly relativist moral sense can do ... with a stroke of his pen". The Daily Mail also accused Eady of "moral and social nihilism" and "arrogance". According to unnamed "friends" of Eady cited in The Guardian, Eady has been "profoundly hurt" by these attacks.
Eady was repeatedly rebuked by the Court of Appeal
for his conduct during the 2009 libel case Desmond
v. Bower
. Eady disallowed several pieces of evidence against Desmond which the Appeal Court ruled were clearly relevant to the case. The Court of Appeal judges ruled that Eady's decision was "plainly wrong" and "might lead to a miscarriage of justice". After hearing the evidence, the jury found in favour of Mr Bower.
In December 2009, Eady commented in The Guardian on some of this criticism, saying that "The media have nowhere to vent their frustrations other than through personal abuse of the particular judge who happens to have made the decision". He added that he does not see libel tourism
as a problem: "I believe the suggestion is that there is a large queue of people, loosely classified as 'foreigners', waiting to clog up our courts with libel actions that are without merit and which have nothing to do with our jurisdiction ... [This] is not a phenomenon we actually come across in our daily lives."
On 10 December 2009, Eady granted Tiger Woods
an injunction preventing the UK media from publishing further revelations about his private life. Reacting to this, media lawyer Mark Stephens
said "This injunction would never have been granted in America....It's unbelievable that Tiger Woods' lawyers have been able to injunct the UK press from reporting information here." Foreign media including The Irish Times
ignored the terms of the UK injunction and published its details.
In April 2011, Eady faced press criticism following a case in which he granted a restraining order
"contra mundum" in OPQ v BJM, creating a worldwide (according to English law
) and permanent ban on publication of details about a man's private life, which involved an actor who had allegedly paid a prostitute. At a previous hearing on 2 February 2011, Eady had described the matter as "a straightforward and blatant blackmail
case".
High Court judge
A High Court judge is a judge of the High Court of Justice, and represents the third highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. High Court judges are referred to as puisne judges...
in England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
. As a judge (since 1997) he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
cases.
He was called to the bar in 1966 and became a Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
in 1983. He was a member of One Brick Court chambers
Chambers (law)
A judge's chambers, often just called his or her chambers, is the office of a judge.Chambers may also refer to the type of courtroom where motions related to matter of procedure are heard.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :...
and, as a lawyer, he specialised in media law until appointed a High Court Judge, Queen's Bench division, on 21 April 1997.
Background
Eady was educated at the Brentwood SchoolBrentwood School (England)
Brentwood School is an independent school in Brentwood, Essex, England. Educating boys and girls in a British public school tradition. Brentwood School is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference....
, Essex, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
.
Barrister (1966 - 1997)
Eady was a member of One Brick Court chambersChambers (law)
A judge's chambers, often just called his or her chambers, is the office of a judge.Chambers may also refer to the type of courtroom where motions related to matter of procedure are heard.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :...
, "a legal chambers known for its libel work," and specialised in media law. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
described him as "a leading courtroom defender of red-top journalism, much in demand as a barrister who could be relied on to uphold the freedom of the tabloids to expose the private lives of public figures."
Examples include Eady's defence of The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
when the Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
actor Bill Roache sued over taunts that he was "boring". He also represented Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
in his libel suits against the late opposition politician Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam was a politician and lawyer from Singapore. He was the leader of the Workers' Party from 1971 to 2001...
. Eady was unsuccessful in 1984 when he represented Derek Jameson
Derek Jameson
Derek Jameson is a retired British tabloid journalist and broadcaster.As a child, Jameson was evacuated from London in WW2...
in an action against the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
over a critical profile of Jameson on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Week Ending
Week Ending
Week Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
(broadcast on 22 March 1980). Eady had advised his instructing solicitor Peter Carter-Ruck
Peter Carter-Ruck
Peter Frederick Carter-Ruck was an English lawyer, specialising in libel cases. The firm he founded, Carter-Ruck, is still practising.-Personal life:...
that the case was "high risk" but the letter had not been passed on to Jameson. In the late 1980s Eady was appointed to the Calcutt Committee presided over by David Calcutt
David Calcutt
Sir David Charles Calcutt QC was an eminent barrister and public servant, knighted in 1991. He was the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1985 until 1994. He was also responsible for the creation of the Press Complaints Commission.-References:...
, which considered how to police the media.
Judge (1997 - )
As a judge (since 1997) he is known for having judged many high-profile libel cases; Quentin LettsQuentin Letts
Quentin Richard Stephen Letts is a British journalist and theatre critic, writing for The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and New Statesman, and previously for The Times.- Early life :...
called him "the High Court's favourite libel judge". According to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Eady "has delivered a series of rulings that have bolstered privacy laws and encouraged libel tourism
Libel tourism
Libel tourism is a term first coined by Geoffrey Robertson to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United States, which provide more extensive defences for those...
." One commentator said that "he has interpreted the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
in a restrictive way. In effect he is developing a privacy law." He has also been repeatedly criticised by Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
on similar grounds.
Eady is, according to the Daily Telegraph, "something of an enigma to his colleagues. He has a reputation for being distant and sometimes difficult in court, but can be immensely charming off duty." In April 2008, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
commented: "He may be just one of more than 100 High Court judges but Sir David Eady is nonetheless arguably more influential than any of his colleagues. Almost single-handedly he is creating new privacy law."
Position on privacy
Eady has cited the failure of actor Gorden KayeGorden Kaye
Gorden Kaye is a BAFTA-nominated English comic actor, best known for playing René Artois in the British TV comedy Allo 'Allo!.-Early life:...
to obtain legal remedies for invasion of privacy in Kaye v Robertson
Kaye v Robertson
Kaye v Robertson [1991] FSR 62 is a case in English law which is a notable case, expressing the view that there is no common law right to privacy in English law.-Facts:...
as one of his concerns, saying that there was: "a serious gap in the jurisprudence of any civilised society, if such a gross intrusion could happen without redress." In an interview with Joshua Rozenberg
Joshua Rozenberg
Joshua Rozenberg is a British legal commentator and journalist.After taking a law degree at Wadham College, University of Oxford, he qualified as a solicitor in 1976, at Dixon Ward solicitors in Richmond, Surrey....
in June 2011, Eady explained that courts assessing issues related to privacy must apply the test used in Von Hannover v Germany
Von Hannover v Germany
Not to be confused with the case von Hannover v. Germany , pending as of 2010Von Hannover v Germany [2004] was a case decided by the European Court of Human Rights in 2004...
(2004), where the decisive factor is whether publication contributes to “a debate of general interest to society”.
Notable cases
In 2003 Eady presided over Alexander Vassiliev vs Frank Cass and Amazon.com.In December 2004 Eady ruled in favor of MP George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on documents found by journalist David Blair
David Blair (journalist)
David Blair is the Energy Correspondent of the Financial Times, having formerly worked for the Daily Telegraph as a Foreign Correspondent and then Diplomatic Editor.-Early life and education:...
in Baghdad. The documents appeared to show that Galloway had received money from Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's regime. In its defence, the newspaper did not attempt to claim justification, seeking to prove the truth of the defamatory reports. Instead, the paper sought to argue the public interest defence established in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd. However Eady did not accept this defence saying the suggestion that Galloway was guilty of "treason", "in Saddam's pay", and being "Saddam's little helper" caused him to conclude "the newspaper was not neutral but both embraced the allegations with relish and fervour and went on to embellish them". Additionally Galloway had not been given a fair or reasonable opportunity to make inquiries or meaningful comment upon the documents before they were published.
In 2005 Eady prevented author Niema Ash from revealing certain details about singer Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...
, on the grounds that they would violate her right to privacy as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
, and furthermore that, as McKennitt's friend, Ash owed the singer a duty of confidence.
In December 2006 Eady granted an order to "[a] prominent figure in the sports world who had had an affair with another man's wife", preventing the betrayed husband from naming him in the media.
In the 2006 case of Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe
Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe
Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe was a House of Lords judgment on English defamation law. The judgment was an affirmation of Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd and effectively upholds a public interest defence in libel cases.-External links:...
Eady ruled in favor of the plaintiff, a Saudi Arabian banker. The Wall Street Journal had listed Jameel among several Saudi businessmen who were allegedly being monitored for support of terrorism. In 2009 the Law Lords overturned Eady's ruling, with Lord Hoffman accusing Mr Justice Eady of being "hostile to the spirit of Reynolds", a reference to the public interest defence established in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd.
Mr Justice Eady entered a default judgment
Default judgment
Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law...
in favour of Khalid bin Mahfouz
Khalid bin Mahfouz
Khalid bin Mahfouz was a wealthy Saudi Arabian businessman residing in Ireland. He was accused of supporting al-Qaeda.As of 2002, he was believed to be confined in a hospital in Taif by Saudi authorities...
in his "libel tourism
Libel tourism
Libel tourism is a term first coined by Geoffrey Robertson to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United States, which provide more extensive defences for those...
" case against American scholar Rachel Ehrenfeld
Rachel Ehrenfeld
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is an expert on terrorism and corruption-related topics. These include terror financing, economic warfare, and narco-terrorism. She has lectured on these issues in many countries, and has advised banking communities, law enforcement agencies, and governments.Dr. Ehrenfeld...
for documenting his alleged financial support of terrorism in Funding Evil
Funding Evil
Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It is a book written by counterterrorism researcher Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the and the Economic Warfare Institute...
. On 1 May 2008, in reaction to this case, the New York State Legislature passed a law that "offers New Yorkers greater protection against libel judgments in countries whose laws are inconsistent with the freedom of speech granted by the United States Constitution.".
In 2008, Eady presided over Max Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
Max Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
Mosley v News Group Newspapers [2008] EWHC 1777 was an English High Court case in which the former President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, Max Mosley, challenged the News of the World...
, awarding Max Mosley
Max Mosley
Max Rufus Mosley is the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide...
damages of 60,000 pounds for invasion of privacy
Invasion of privacy
United States privacy law embodies several different legal concepts. One is the invasion of privacy, a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into his or her private affairs, discloses his or her private information,...
after the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
exposed his participation in a sado-masochistic orgy.
In 2009, Mr. Justice Eady issued a judgment that Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
was not liable for defamatory content accessible through or cached by Google search
Google search
Google or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....
.
In June 2009, Eady ruled that Richard Horton
Richard Horton (blogger)
Richard Horton is a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, and blogger who lives in Lancashire. He is the author of the Orwell Prize-winning anonymous blog NightJack which commented on his work as a police officer....
, a detective constable who wrote an anonymous blog called "NightJack" could be named, as he had "no reasonable expectation of privacy". The blog was described as a "behind-the-scenes commentary on policing".
That same year, Eady ruled in a judgement in a libel case by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) against Simon Singh
Simon Singh
Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....
. Singh had called the BCA's claims that spinal manipulation
Spinal manipulation
Spinal manipulation is a therapeutic intervention performed on spinal articulations which are synovial joints . These articulations in the spine that are amenable to spinal manipulative therapy include the z-joints, the atlanto-occipital, atlanto-axial, lumbosacral, sacroiliac, costotransverse...
could cure children with colic, ear infections, asthma, sleeping and feeding conditions, and prolonged crying "bogus". Eady ruled that this meant deliberately false, meaning Singh would have to prove that the BCA's members were being deliberately deceitful, not merely making a false or unsupported claim. Singh filed an appeal against this ruling. In April 2010, Singh won his appeal, the ruling saying Eady had "erred in his approach", and was inviting the court "to become an Orwellian ministry of truth".
Mr Justice Eady has also given judgment in a number of high profile media trials involving among others Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Josh Hartnett
Josh Hartnett
Joshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett is an American actor and aspiring producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax...
, Marco Pierre White
Marco Pierre White
Marco Pierre White is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur and television personality. He is noted for his contributions to contemporary international cuisine, and his exceptional culinary skills....
, Sara Keays
Sara Keays
Sara Keays is the former mistress and personal secretary of British Conservative politician Cecil Parkinson. Keays' public revelation of her pregnancy and of their twelve-year long affair, when she realised that Parkinson would neither marry her nor help her become an MP, led to his resignation as...
, Roger Alton
Roger Alton
Roger Alton is a British journalist. Currently executive editor of The Times he was formerly editor of The Independent and The Observer....
, Carol Sarler and Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
.
In April and May 2011, David Eady was the presiding judge in CTB v News Group Newspapers
CTB v News Group Newspapers
CTB v News Group Newspapers is an English legal case between Manchester United player Ryan Giggs, given the pseudonym CTB, and defendants News Group Newspapers Limited and model Imogen Thomas....
. The case involved an anonymous footballer (CTB), who had been involved in an extra-marital relationship with Imogen Thomas
Imogen Thomas
Imogen Mary Thomas is a Welsh glamour model, beauty queen and television personality. She rose to fame in 2003, after winning Miss Wales, and achieved further note in 2006, when she lasted three months on the seventh series of reality TV series Big Brother.-Early life:Imogen was born to Charles...
. Following the repeated posting of tweets
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
naming the footballer as Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
, and media coverage in the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
press, the anonymised injunction was effectively ended. Despite this, on 23 May 2011 Mr Justice Eady upheld the injunction in the High Court. Later the same day John Hemming MP named Ryan Giggs in Parliament, which finally broke the injunction.
Criticism
Daily Mail editor Paul DacrePaul Dacre
Paul Michael Dacre is a British journalist and current editor of the British newspaper the Daily Mail. He is also editor in chief of the Mail group titles, which also includes The Mail on Sunday. He is also a director of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc and was a member of the Press Complaints...
has been particularly critical of Eady. In a November 2008 article he accused the judge of "arrogant and amoral judgments", and went on to complain that
Dacre was also particularly critical of Eady's ruling in the Max Mosley case
Max Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
Mosley v News Group Newspapers [2008] EWHC 1777 was an English High Court case in which the former President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, Max Mosley, challenged the News of the World...
, describing it as a frightening example of what "one judge with a subjective and highly relativist moral sense can do ... with a stroke of his pen". The Daily Mail also accused Eady of "moral and social nihilism" and "arrogance". According to unnamed "friends" of Eady cited in The Guardian, Eady has been "profoundly hurt" by these attacks.
Eady was repeatedly rebuked by the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
for his conduct during the 2009 libel case Desmond
Richard Desmond
Richard Clive Desmond is an English publisher and businessman. He is the owner of Express Newspapers and founder in 1974 of Northern & Shell, which publishes various celebrity magazines, such as OK! and New!, and British national newspapers Daily Star and Daily Express...
v. Bower
Tom Bower
Tom Bower is a British writer, noted for his revelatory investigative work such as his unauthorized biographies.A former Panorama reporter, his books include unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson...
. Eady disallowed several pieces of evidence against Desmond which the Appeal Court ruled were clearly relevant to the case. The Court of Appeal judges ruled that Eady's decision was "plainly wrong" and "might lead to a miscarriage of justice". After hearing the evidence, the jury found in favour of Mr Bower.
In December 2009, Eady commented in The Guardian on some of this criticism, saying that "The media have nowhere to vent their frustrations other than through personal abuse of the particular judge who happens to have made the decision". He added that he does not see libel tourism
Libel tourism
Libel tourism is a term first coined by Geoffrey Robertson to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United States, which provide more extensive defences for those...
as a problem: "I believe the suggestion is that there is a large queue of people, loosely classified as 'foreigners', waiting to clog up our courts with libel actions that are without merit and which have nothing to do with our jurisdiction ... [This] is not a phenomenon we actually come across in our daily lives."
On 10 December 2009, Eady granted Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
an injunction preventing the UK media from publishing further revelations about his private life. Reacting to this, media lawyer Mark Stephens
Mark Stephens (solicitor)
Mark Howard Stephens CBE is a British solicitor specialising in media law, intellectual property rights and human rights with the firm Finers Stephens Innocent...
said "This injunction would never have been granted in America....It's unbelievable that Tiger Woods' lawyers have been able to injunct the UK press from reporting information here." Foreign media including The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
ignored the terms of the UK injunction and published its details.
In April 2011, Eady faced press criticism following a case in which he granted a restraining order
Restraining order
A restraining order or order of protection is a form of legal injunction that requires a party to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. A party that refuses to comply with an order faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
"contra mundum" in OPQ v BJM, creating a worldwide (according to English law
English law
English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...
) and permanent ban on publication of details about a man's private life, which involved an actor who had allegedly paid a prostitute. At a previous hearing on 2 February 2011, Eady had described the matter as "a straightforward and blatant blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
case".