Euromillions winner succeeds in privacy claim

Defendant ordered to pay £10,000 in general and £2,500 in aggravated damages

The Euromillions winner Gareth Bull has had judgment entered in his favour against Donna Desporte following the conclusion of a four day trial.

Ms Desporte published an autobiography which the trial judge concluded largely concerned her relationship with Mr Bull.  He found that  the 36 passages complained of misused Mr Bull’s private information.  The book included four categories of private information: (1) details of his sexual relationship with Ms Desporte; (2) his relationship and divorce from his wife; (3) his children; and (4) his physical health.

The book had originally been published to about 100 people in hard copy form and to some people as an ebook.  An Interim Non-Disclosure Order was then obtained which prevented further publication of the information in issue.  However, Ms Desporte published a new edition of the book which simply changed the Claimant’s name from Gareth Bull to “Gary Ball” and still described his lottery win.  Therefore the second edition of the book breached the interim injunction because Mr Bull was still clearly identifiable and the relevant private information was included.

Mr Bull was granted a final injunction preventing the publication of the four categories of information, was awarded £10,000 in general damages and £2,500 in aggravated damages for the breach of the interim injunction.

5RB’s William Bennett QC acted for Mr Bull at trial and Jacob Dean acted for him in obtaining the interim injunction.  Both were instructed by Howes Percival.