Chris Huhne Partner, Carina Trimingham, Drops Privacy Appeal Against Daily Mail

Chris Huhne Partner Drops Privacy Case Against Mail

Carina Trimingham, the partner of disgraced former Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne, has dropped her bid to appeal in her privacy battle against Associated Newspapers over a series of stories which appeared in the Daily Mail.

Ms Trimingham's appeal was listed to be heard by the Court of Appeal on 12-13 March.

But a spokeswoman at the Office for Judicial Communications confirmed on Tuesday that the appeal was withdrawn on Thursday last week, 14 February.

Carina Trimingham with Chris Huhne after he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice

That was just 10 days after Huhne, who was accompanied to Southwark Crown Court by Ms Trimingham, had admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice by getting his former wife, Vicky Pryce, to take speeding points on his behalf, and shortly afterwards announced that he was resigning as MP for Eastleigh.

The Inforrm blog reported: "Ms Trimingham made it clear that she had pursued this matter as far as she possibly could, but was not able to convince the Daily Mail to apologise for the hurt and distress they had caused her.

"The appeal was withdrawn because it was no longer feasible for her to continue to fight a wealthy media company and to take the case to the Court of Appeal. The appeal was dismissed with no order for costs."

Ms Trimingham, a 44-year-old PR adviser, won permission in September last year to appeal against Mr Justice Tugendhat's rejection of her claim against Associated Newspapers over a series of 65 stories in the Daily Mail which she said breached her right to privacy and were harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act.

Her affair with Huhne, the former energy and climate change secretary, became public in June 2010, and he left Ms Pryce, his wife of 26 years, who is on trial for perverting the course of justice in relation to the speeding points.

Ms Trimingham's lawyers had told Mr Justice Tugendhat during the High Court trial that the Daily Mail's articles constituted a "cataclysmic interference" with her private life.

But Associated Newspapers argued that there was an important public interest in the stories.

Mr Justice Tugendhat rejected Ms Trimingham's claim, saying she was not the "purely private figure she claims to be", and that her "reasonable expectation of privacy has become limited" because of both her relationship with Mr Huhne and what she herself had disclosed in the past.

Associated Newspapers, which it is understood had planned to defend the appeal vigorously, would not comment publicly.

But sources said that it was clear from the original judgment that Ms Trimingham had been defeated on every aspect of her claim.

It was her own decision entirely to drop the appeal. In addition, she was still liable for all the costs of the original trial.

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