Sex slur sees Sir Sorrell sue

Sir Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive of WPP, at the World Economic Forum in Davos 25 January 2006. (PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images)

Sir Martin Sorrell, the global advertising magnate and a regular visitor to the Middle East, is suing two former colleagues who labelled him and a female executive "the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo".

Sorrell is chief executive at the $15bn WPP Group, which has a presence in ten Middle East countries. Its businesses include Hill & Knowlton, Bates PanGulf and Buchanan Communications.

The libel and invasion of privacy case - which is expected to last three weeks at London's High Court - is thought to be the first in which internet blogs have been at the centre of a defamation hearing, according to the Times newspaper.

It relates to two former business associates, who allegedly labelled Sorrell a 'mad dwarf' in a private email.

Sorrell's counsel, Desmond Browne QC, said that the two former associates had been compelled to disseminate libellous comments after Sorrell sacked one of them.

'Vicious images' of both Sorrell and WPP's chief operating officer in Italy, Daniela Weber, had appeared on a series of internet blogs, 'grossly intrud(ing)' into their private lives, argued Browne.

One of the men even referred to the two as 'the mad dwarf and nympho schizo', and there was information on his computer linking him to the images, according to Browne.

The two men deny all the allegations.

The case continues.

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