A popular political blog has revealed the identities of a celebrity threesome couple behind an injunction that stops the media reporting that one of them had extramarital sex.
The website identified the married couple, only know as PJS and YMA, as pressure mounted on the pair to ditch anonymity, stoking claims by the press that the legal ruling was descending into farce and was unsustainable.
The blog, which mocked the court ruling by printing an image of the couple with black slits over their eyes, despite the fact their identities were obvious from the picture.
The world-famous pair have only been identified as PJS and YMA. PJS allegedly had a threesome with another couple.
On Tuesday, the blog said that it had been contacted by the celebrity’s lawyers, Carter Ruck, threatening to jail the editor for Contempt of Court.
The terms of the injunction are so strict the blog cannot be named, nor can the Scottish newspaper or US magazine that have also named them.
Their names have also been reported on Twitter and other social media sites.
The blog claimed it was outside the jurisdiction of the injunction, which applies only to England and Wales.
“There are no physical assets in the UK, there is no digital equivalent of a printing press, no device that can be seized or smashed,” the blogger wrote.
“Web users point their browsers at a server in the US and fetch the data back, we do not store published content in the UK.”
The political blogger said that proceedings have been threatened in Ireland, which they would be prepared to fight.
Media lawyer Mark Stephens told The Independent that, although the article was written and published outside the UK, the blog editor may still be subject to the order as a British resident.
“This appears to be a very deliberate and flagrant attempt to violate the order because he knew about the injunction,” he said.
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“While in Ireland I suspect he won’t have anything done to him, the moment he sets foot in the UK he can be arrested and charged with contempt."
The Scottish newspaper, which published on Sunday, wrote an editorial explaining its decision to reveal the identities but was unable to put any of it online.
The injunction has kept the story in the papers the past week, as the press writes increasingly ferocious articles mocking the injunction while having to not reveal the couple's identity.
The famous pair won their injunction at The Court Of Appeal, which forbade The Sun On Sunday from naming them in a story about the threesome.
The court said the couple's children's right to privacy outweighed the paper's right to publish.
On Twitter, the blog claimed The Times had amended an article so as to remove a reference to it by name.
The blog has also been retweeting other media reports of its publication, identifying the couple.
The Sun editor Tony Gallagher said 'the law is an ass" in a tweet decrying how his paper could not name the couple.
The court said the couple's children's right to privacy outweighed the paper's right to publish.
On Twitter, the blog claimed The Times had amended an article so as to remove a reference to it by name.
The blog has also been retweeting other media reports of its publication, identifying the couple.
The Sun editor Tony Gallagher said "the law is an ass" in a tweet decrying how his paper could not name the couple.
The blog's publication comes as an MP did not, as expected, name the pair in the Commons under the protection of Parliamentary Privilege, which would free the press to do so.
Speaker John Bercow has reportedly warned MPs not to do so, citing parliamentary rules that MPs should not discuss live court cases.
A spokesman told The Telegraph on Monday: "Members should not breach the terms of any injunction/super injunction. With respect to how this is to be enforced, Mr Speaker will be taking advice from senior procedural officials later this morning."
If an MP did name them, it would follow a precedent set by former Lib Dem MP John Hemming who identified Ryan Giggs as the footballer behind an injunction banning him being named over an alleged affair with Imogen Thomas.
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