£41m lottery winner blocks ‘soft porn’ book about his steamy affair
A LOTTERY winner has obtained a banning order against his lover’s ‘soft-core pornography’ book about their steamy affair.
Former bricklayer Gareth Bull was still married when he met Donna Desporte four years after winning £41million on the Euromillions with his wife Catherine.
A court was told Mr Bull, 46, spent thousands taking his mistress to star- studded events before his wife reportedly discovered their illicit relationship when she saw them in the background of a televised boxing match.
After their nine- month fling ended, Miss Desporte, 48, wrote a memoir about their time together, called Google Me – No Lies: The Incredible True Heartbreaking Amazing Story Of A Survivor!
The book’s title was a reference to the conversation that allegedly took place between them when they first met in a bar in Tenerife in October last year.
Miss Desporte claimed Mr Bull’s chat-up line was: ‘I won the lottery, Google me’.
The lottery winner’s barrister said yesterday the book contained ‘soft-core pornography’ and that some of its contents breach the privacy of Mr Bull and his family
And last night a High Court judge ruled the book must be removed from sale in the UK.
Judge Patrick Moloney QC said Mr Bull, 46, from Nottinghamshire, had ‘a strong case’ that parts of the book breached his privacy rights.
He was entitled to expect that intimate sexual details of his affair with Miss Desporte would not be disclosed to the world at large.
Miss Desporte, from Bournemouth, who now runs a bar in Tenerife, had ‘warned’ Mr Bull in June that she was planning to give press interviews and publish electronic and paperback versions of a book about their time together.
Mr Bull’s barrister, Jacob Dean, told the court she had texted his client to say the book was about her and that she did not want to ‘create difficulties’ for him.
But when the book appeared, it gave graphic descriptions of their sexual relationship, as well as private information relating to his wife, children and health, the barrister said.
Mr Bull, who is now separated from his 40-year- old wife, had sought to restrain further publication of intimate details.
Miss Desporte defended her decision to write the book, saying it is ‘in the public interest for the truth to come out’.
She said: ‘Mr Bull made a series of advances to me based on deception. He told me, “I’m not sleeping with anybody else – one dog, one bone.” That was false.’
But Mr Dean argued: ‘My client is not a public figure, he is not somebody who has presented himself as never having been deceptive to former partners.’
Judge Moloney ruled that Mr Bull’s delay in seeking an injunction was almost fatal to his claim ‘but not quite’.
Miss Desporte was banned from discussing or publishing details of their sexual relationship in England and Wales. The same applies to details about Mr Bull’s marriage, his children and a health problem from which he suffers.
Mr Bull, a father of two, won his millions in 2012.