Supermodel wins privacy case against Daily Mirror

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has successfully won a landmark privacy case taken against the Daily Mirror.

In a split three-to-two decision the Law Lords ruled in Miss Campbell's favour, overturning an Appeal Court ruling that the Daily Mirror had been entitled to publish information on her private life, including pictures of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in February 2001.

The case had been already been overturned on appeal, following a High Court ruling in her favour. The Appeal Court had ordered her to pay the newspaper's legal costs; then amounting to £350,000.

Though the ruling is considered to do little to clarify privacy law in the UK, legal experts have warned that the Law Lords' ruling has serious implications for the media, which often seeks to report revelations about the private lives of high profile celebrities.

Miss Campbell's lawyer, Keith Schilling described the ruling as "not only a vindication for her personally" but one that represented "a real advantage for the rights of people to maintain important elements of their privacy, particularly when related to therapy and people who need to have treatment".

The Law Lords finding reinstates the High Court award of £3,500 made to Miss Campbell on the grounds of breaches of confidentiality and duty under the 1998 Data Protection Act.

The Lords also issued an injunction on the newspaper to prevent any further publication of pictures of Miss Campbell leaving Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

Mirror Group Newspapers is now faced with legal costs estimated to be in excess of £1.5 million.

(SP)