Those who despised the News of the World’s fascination with the sex lives of the powerful and famous should perhaps bear in mind that without that now defunct paper Chris Huhne would still be Energy and Secretary and we would be unaware that he was seriously dishonest.
Huhne’s trial by media began on 19 June, 2010, when the News of the World contacted him to say it had evidence he spent the night with his former press spokeswoman Carina Trimingham. Huhne responded by telling his wife Vicki Pryce that their marriage of 26 years was over and issuing a statement in time for the next day’s paper saying: “I am in a serious relationship with Carina Trimingham and I am separating from my wife.” It was a brutal but effective tactic which had previously saved the politicial career of former Labour foreign secretary Robin Cook.
But it did not end the press fascination with Huhne’s private life, especially when it emerged that Trimingham had formerly had a female civil partner.
Trimingham later sued over 65 “highly unpleasant and hurtful” articles which appeared in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. These included a Richard Littlejohn piece on 22 June 2010 which said: “If you asked to draw a comedy lesbian from central casting, Carina Trimingham is what you’d get. All spiky hair and Doc Martens. Chuck in a boiler suit and she’s Milly Tant straight from the pages of Viz magazine….What Huhne sees in her can only be a matter for speculation.” In May 2012 the case was thrown out after Mr Justice Tugenhat ruled that “ insulting and offensive speech is protected by the right of freedom of expression”.
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