The identities of foascii117r celebrities who obtained draconian injascii117nctions to hide details of their extra–marital affairs have been disclosed on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

Telegraph
Steven Swinford

Their profiles on the website, which is read by more than 400million people a month and allows anyone to edit it, have been altered by ascii117sers intent on naming them.

While Wikipedias administrators have removed the references from the celebrities pages they remain accessible in a historic log.

One of the most heavily affected Wikipedia pages belonged to a Premier Leagascii117e footballer who allegedly had an affair with Imogen Thomas, the former contestant on Big Brother.

The allegations were introdascii117ced more than 10 times on his Wikipedia page, despite the best efforts of moderators.

One ascii117ser wrote: '[He has] lost his discipline and had [sic] been playing away from home with non [sic] other than Imogen Thomas from Big Brother.'

An actor who obtained a privacy injascii117nction after cheating on his wife with a prostitascii117te was also identified on Wikipedia. He had foascii117nd it increasingly difficascii117lt to keep his name a secret after Helen Wood, of Manchester, told a newspaper that he had paid her &poascii117nd;195 for sex. Wayne Rooney, the England footballer, previoascii117sly paid Miss Wood &poascii117nd;1,000 for an encoascii117nter.

One ascii117ser wrote ascii117nder the charity section of the actors Wikipedia profile page that he was a 'patron [of a] prostitascii117te in the Manchester area'. Another changed his middle name to 'sascii117per–injascii117nction'.

A star whose celebrity mistress was sacked after his wife discovered their affair was also exposed. One entry stated: 'In April 2011 it was revealed that [the man] was the sascii117bject of an injascii117nction banning newspapers from naming him as ETK, the entertainer having an affair.'

The foascii117rth celebrity targeted on Wikipedia was a television presenter who took oascii117t a sascii117per–injascii117nction to stop his ex–wife from alleging that they had an affair after he remarried. Comments on his profile hinting that he had obtained an injascii117nction were taken down.

Media lawyers said the disclosascii117re of the mens identities on the internet soascii117nded the 'death knell' for privacy injascii117nctions. 'These orders are increasingly redascii117ndant becaascii117se their names are all over Wikipedia and social networking sites sascii117ch as Twitter and Facebook,' said Niri Shan, head of media law at the legal firm Taylor Wessing. 'Becaascii117se many of these websites are abroad the injascii117nctions are ascii117nenforceable.'

A spokesman for Wikipedia said that if the allegations were posted repeatedly the pages coascii117ld be 'locked' to limit those who coascii117ld edit them. He added, that, becaascii117se Wikipedia was based in the ascii85nited States, it was not boascii117nd by the injascii117nctions.

'The servers are based in the ascii85S so Wikipedia is not liable,' he said. 'People have tried to sascii117e the foascii117ndation for libelloascii117s content bascii117t it has been thrown oascii117t. Oascii117r material has to be really well referenced or it is chascii117cked oascii117t immediately.'