Court: ‘Paparazzi made Sienna Miller’s life intolerable’

Maida Vale actress Sienna Miller’s life has been made “intolerable” because of a “campaign of harassment” by pursuing photographers, the High Court has heard.

Mr Justice Eady, sitting in London, was told that the star has been caused “substantial alarm, fear and enormous distress” by their conduct.

Details of the alleged campaign emerged during a preliminary hearing on Thursday of legal proceedings launched by the 26-year-old, claiming harassment and invasion of privacy.

Her case is against photographic agency Big Pictures (UK) Limited and its founder, Darryn Lyons, who will contest the action when it comes to trial early next year.

The actress, who has starred in a number of films including Alfie and Layer Cake, was not present at Thursday’s hearing, at the end of which the judge said the trial should be heard on the first available date after January 12.

The actress complains about a number of incidents while in the UK, including being confronted outside her house in Maida Vale, on June 22 “and then chased by car in a dangerous manner to Heathrow Airport”.

She claims that on July 21, following her return from Italy, she was pursued and harassed in west London and on August 28, after her return to London from Ibiza, she was pursued as she attempted to walk her dogs in the park with her mother.

Other incidents include being “pursued in a dangerous manner all the way from Stroud to Heathrow” on September 7, which she found “very frightening”.

Last month she won £15,000 in privacy damages, plus costs, from the Daily Star after it defied a Press Complaints Commission ban on UK newspapers publishing photos of her which had come about as a result of harassment.

The photo was published on 11 September and showed a distressed Miller standing in the foyer of a private building in Los Angeles being photographed and videoed by around a dozen paparazzi.

After being contacted by Miller’s lawyers Carter-Ruck, the Press Complaints Commission urged British news organisations not to publish photographs of Miller which had resulted from harassment. All complied apart from the Daily Star.