Trimingham was a press officer and campaign director for the electoral reform society. She had worked as a press officer for Chris Huhne, a Cabinet Minister. Both of their partners had been unaware that the two of them had been having an affair. Many newspaper articles were written about their relationship and referred to her as a “bisexual” and “lesbian”.
The High Court turned down her claim for a breach of her privacy rights under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act. The press’s right to freedom of expression under Article 10 outweighed those rights in this case. The public had an interest in knowing whether they could be trusted and how their public roles may be affected. There was also no harassment involved. Any use of the terms “bisexual” and “lesbian” was done in a factual rather than pejorative sense. It would not be proportionate to interfere with the paper’s rights to freedom of expression.