Judge grants injunction over Daily Star's sneak pictures of actress

The celebrity-stalking and long-lens photography brought to the Daily Express and Daily Star by Jason Fraser, the former paparazzo bought in to boost the papers' showbusiness coverage, has set off legal action and a claim for damages from the television star Amanda Holden yesterday.

Her lawyers obtained an injunction, saying sneak topless pictures, splashed across the front and centre pages of the Daily Star on Thursday, had infringed her privacy.

Mr Justice Eady granted an interim ruling blocking further publication of photos of Ms Holden's holiday in Tuscany. She is seeking damages from the paper and destruction of the photo her lawyer, Peter Crawford, of Stitt and Co, said were a clear breach of Press Complaints Commission (PCC) rules. Miss Holden was staying in a private villa with a secluded garden and the photographs were probably taken from private land to which there was no public access. "Miss Holden has said she will take similar action against other newspapers if her rights to privacy are infringed," he added.

The PCC prohibits photographing people on private land with long lenses and use of such pictures by tabloid newspapers is declining. But critics say this is the photography on which Jason Fraser built his reputation and a considerable fortune. Although he no longer clicks the long-range cameras, he has the contacts that provide such opportunities. In March, when he was appointed executive director of Express Newspapers, the owner of the Daily Star, Fleet Street widely assumed there would be an increased use of long-lens photographs in the group's papers.

One of his first "coups" was pictures of actors Emma Thompson and Greg Wise on holiday with their baby daughter. Ms Thompson was said to be displeased.

The Press Complaints Commission does not investigate if a complainant goes to law. But Tim Toulmin, its deputy director, said: "The code is clear. If you're in a place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, it is not acceptable for people to take long-lens pictures of you. It's rare for newspapers to breach that part of the code now because they know they'll get clobbered by us."

But newspapers can claim a defence of publication in the public interest. The Daily Mail and OK! magazine escaped censure over pictures of Anna Ford on her holiday hotel beach after the PCC agreed a beach was a public place.

Mr Fraser declined to comment yesterday.