High Court judge Mr Justice Lindblom has explained that British tabloid The Sun was right to publish a story about former England coach Steve McClaren's extramarital affair.
On August 19 The Sun on Sunday published a story headlined 'McClaren affair with Sven's ex', revealing that the 51-year-old was involved in a fling with Saima Ansari, who incidentally had an affair with McClaren's predecessor Sven-Goran Eriksson.
The publication of the story followed the defeat of the 11th-hour injunction, as Lindblom delivered his judgement on the matter in an emergency private hearing attended by lawyers for McClaren and The Sun on August 18.
However, the details of the ruling were published for the first time on Wednesday in which Lindblom explains why he made his decision in favour of the newspaper.
"As a former manager of England's football team, the claimant is in my view undoubtedly a public figure within the definition recognised by Tugendhat J in Spelman," said Lindblom.
"It is a matter of fact that he previously disclosed an extra-marital relationship in a national newspaper, saying that he was happily married and that his marriage would survive... I concluded that [The Sun] plainly had a legitimate public interest in publishing its story."
Lindblom further backed The Sun by adding that McClaren was a public figure "from whom the public could reasonably expect a higher standard of conduct".
McClaren has not denied the affair.
Subhankar Mondal
