Rio Ferdinand loses privacy case

29 September 2011 Last updated at 10:13 ET

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand is a married father of three

Football star Rio Ferdinand has lost his High Court privacy action over a story in the Sunday Mirror about an alleged affair.

The Manchester United player was seeking substantial damages from MGN Ltd for misuse of private information.

The case was over a April 2010 Sunday Mirror article in which Carly Storey gave her account of their alleged relationship in return for £16,000.

The 32-year-old defender and his wife, Rebecca, have three children.

Ferdinand had branded the article – My Affair with England Captain Rio – a “gross invasion of my privacy”.

The case hinged on whether the newspaper was justified in publishing its story because the public interest was such that its Article 10 right to freedom of expression was of a greater importance than Ferdinand’s Article 8 privacy right under the Human Rights Act.

The story said that Ferdinand ended the relationship within days of being handed the England captain’s armband in February 2010 – when he replaced John Terry as England captain.

In court, the judge said: “Overall, in my judgment, the balancing exercise favours the defendant’s right of freedom of expression over the claimant’s right of privacy.”

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.