Hiding behind the law: The sports star who kept his affair secret thanks to Justice Eady

When an outraged husband discovered his wife was having an affair with a married sportsman, he decided the public should know the truth.

He was prepared to tell the full sordid story to a newspaper.

But the celebrity, who has plenty of money to spend on lawyers, was desperate to maintain his 'family man' reputation.

So he sought an injunction to stop the story appearing - and he found the support he needed in Mr Justice Eady.

Thanks to the judge's 2006 ruling, the figure from the sports world and his mistress still cannot be named.

The gist of the adulterous celebrity's argument was that his sordid secret should stay just that because of the danger his wife might harm herself if his shame was exposed.

To the shock of media world, and of many lawyers, Mr Justice Eady agreed. He had weighed in the balance the cuckolded husband's-right to freedom of speech, and the adulterous sports figure's right to privacy - and freedom of speech was the loser.

Astonishingly, he ruled 'that a spouse whose partner has committed adultery owes a duty of confidence to the adulterer to keep quiet'.

It was, said critics, an extraordinary decision which could and would be used by politicians and other public figures to hide embarrassing facts about themselves.

The Daily Mail is constrained by the law over how much detail can be given, but the celebrity was a highly-regarded figure in the sports world, married with children and with a clean-cut image.

His success at his career led to travel all over the world - and when he met the married woman concerned, conducting an affair was easy.

He claimed to be unaware she was married and they had sex in hotels across England, Europe and America, and even brazenly appeared in public together.

His wife, who was born overseas, and is attractive, sensitive and kind, was busy at home looking after the children.

When she was told of her husband's affair, she threatened to kill herself, and was put on medication as they tried to rebuild their marriage. Her 'fragile mental state' was a key feature in the legal case.

The mistress in the affair, a singer in a little-known band, was aged 26 and many years her lover's junior when she met him.

Her 27-year-old husband was tipped off by a relative of his wife about the affair.

The court order barred him from discussing his wife's affair with the media, or on the internet.

Those outraged at Judge Eady's ruling included high-minded former editor of the Guardian Peter Preston, not a man given to publishing kiss-and-tell stories.

He said the judge's 'speciality seemed to be shutting journalists up'.