Copied and pasted from teh Telegraph online today:
Husband cleared of harassing wife's lover on Twitter
A husband who humiliated a millionaire City broker who had an affair with his wife by exposing graphic details of the relationship on Twitter and in internet blogs walked free from court yesterday, claiming a “victory for free speech”.
Ian Puddick and his wife, Leena, outside City of Westminster magistrates' court yesterday. He has forgiven her for the affair Ian Puddick, 41, a plumber, was cleared of harassing Tim Haynes, a former director at the reinsurance multinational Guy Carpenter, by publishing the contents of sexually explicit texts and emails which he had sent, and calling him a “toad”.
Mr Haynes was described in court as an “arrogant, deceitful and immoral man” who had lied to his wife and exploited his position to conduct the secret affair with Leena Puddick, his Finnish secretary.
Mr Haynes, 52, claimed in court that he was effectively driven out of his job at Guy Carpenter by Mr Puddick’s campaign. But formal admissions read in court yesterday showed that when he resigned last year he was facing disciplinary proceedings over allegations that he used his office expenses to fund his affair. Mrs Puddick, 36, told the court that a senior director at the company had told her that had he not resigned he could also have been in “big trouble” with the Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, over his expenses.
Mr Puddick, who has forgiven his wife for the affair, highlighted the expenses allegations on his websites as well as detailing the affair. Mr Haynes claimed that the exposure caused distress to him, his family, friends and business clients. But yesterday, after a three-day trial at City of Westminster magistrates’ court, District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe dismissed two charges of harassment against Mr Puddick. Mr Puddick’s barrister, Michael Wolkind QC, argued that his client had a right to expose Mr Haynes’s behaviour. “His websites are his scream of frustration and even his scream of pain,” he told the court.’’ Mr Wolkind added: “He wouldn’t take it lying down – unlike, sadly, his wife did for years in her relationship with Tim Haynes.”
Giving evidence, Mrs Puddick disclosed that even when the relationship was exposed – after her husband found a sexually explicit photograph of Mr Haynes on her mobile phone – the broker tried to persuade her to stay with him by offering to set her up in a flat as a “kept woman”. Outside court Mr Puddick said: “This is a victory for the little guy. Frankly, in this country we don’t generally do what I did and stand up and fight. It is a victory for free speech.”
