Cole's privacy action set for High Court hearing

Chelsea defender Ashley Cole’s privacy action over newspaper claims about his sex life is set for the High Court in Britain next autumn.

Cole is suing Mirror Group Newspapers and News Group Newspapers for compensation, including aggravated and exemplary damages, over a range of articles which appeared in January and February this year.

His counsel, David Sherborne, told senior High Court official Deputy Master Bard today that they contained “private information which represents an unjustified intrusion” into Cole’s private life concerning the alleged sexual relationships he had with three women.

The estimated four-week trial, involving up to 28 witnesses, will be heard by a judge in London, sitting without a jury.

Counsel Alexandra Marzec for the newspapers, who are contesting the action, said that both Cole and his wife, singer and 'X Factor' judge Cheryl, had put a “mass” of information about their personal life into the public domain already and, since publication, had continued to disseminate information on the same subject matter as the articles complained of.

Mr Sherborne criticised the defence approach as misconceived.

“We say they calculated that it was worth invading the claimant’s privacy because of the profit that would result.”

Neither Cole nor his wife attended the preliminary case management conference.