Author JK Rowling back in court over paparazzi picture
JK Rowling renews attempt to ban publication of paparazzi photograph taken of son David.
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Tuesday, 11, Mar 2008 12:55
JK Rowling has renewed her attempt to ban the publication of a paparazzi photograph taken of her son David.
The Sunday Express magazine published a picture taken using a long-range lens of the Harry Potter author and her husband Dr Neil Murray with the child, then 18 months old, in a buggy.
Rowling and Dr Murray sued Express Newspapers and photo agency Big Pictures last year but saw their high court action against the paparazzi firm dismissed.
The couple have settled the claim with the newspaper but have now gone to the court of appeal seeking damages and an injunction banning the further publication of the photograph, which appeared in an article regarding approaches to motherhood.
Addressing the appeal panel on Monday, Rowling's lawyer Richard Spearman QC said: "This claim is not about the rights of adults, this is about the rights of the child."
Mark Warby QC, representing Big Pictures, said Rowling and her husband are attempting to claim David, now four, had been "molested" by the taking of the photograph.
He added: "The reality is that claimants' lawyers have never been able to identify any concrete way in which the child has been harmed."
Dismissing the original case in August last year, judge Nicholas Patten said the claim David had been harmed by the taking of the picture was "somewhat artificial".
He added the law did not provide people in the public eye such as Rowling with a "press-free zone for their children in respect of absolutely everything they choose to do".
The hearing has been adjourned.