A woman from County Durham complained that an article which appeared in the Daily Mail on 21 October 1997 headlined " He'll chuck you", intruded into her privacy in breach of Clause 4 (Privacy) of the Code of Practice.

The article concerned a man who had had several children by teenage girls, including the complainant. It briefly explained that she had a ten year old daughter by the man. Her full name and daughter's forename were included. The complainant said that when reporters had visited her she had refused permission to publish her daughter's photograph or reference to her or her daughter.

The newspaper said the complainant stated she wanted nothing to do with the father of her daughter and that a photograph was not to be used. However she did not ask for her name or that of her child to be withheld, and the reporter made no such promise.

To the newspaper's credit an apology was offered to the complainant for any offence caused. However she preferred a decision to be made by the Commission, which noted that the newspaper had refrained from publishing a picture of the woman's child in line with the Code. Nonetheless the story could have been written without reference to mother or daughter as the events had happened ten years earlier, so there was an intrusion into privacy.

The complaint was upheld.