Tulisa accepts £42k damages after publication of sex tape still

Tulisa Contostavlos has accepted £42,500 damages from news website TNT over its wrongful publication of a still from a sex tape which appeared on the internet.

The settlement emerged during a hearing at London's High Court about the legal costs arising from breach of privacy proceedings brought by the 25-year-old singer against a number of defendants in March last year.

TNT took the still down as soon as it knew an injunction had been granted, but it had already received up to 9,000 hits.

Today, Mr Justice Dingemans was told it was the only mainstream publisher to publish a still and this had encouraged people to look for illegal copies of the video, but TNT had said the still added nothing to the story and the public would have been aware of the video from other coverage.

The judge heard that, after an admission of liability, TNT made an offer of £42,500 compensation which was accepted and, although it had since gone into administration, its insurers were willing to pay the sum.

In July last year, Miss Contostavlos won an apology from her ex-boyfriend, rapper Justin Edwards, who initially denied being responsible for the tape appearing on the web.

During the July case, solicitor Jonathan Coad told the High Court that the invasion of her privacy 'was of the most severe kind imaginable''.

He said she had been especially upset by the completely untrue allegation made by some that she was in some way involved with the release of the footage.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.