UK court rules public has right to know Boris Johnson fathered child during 'brief adulterous affair'

The public has a right to know that London Mayor Boris Johnson fathered a child during an extramarital affair, the appeal court has ruled.

Three senior judges decided on Monday that voters were entitled to be told that Johnson conducted a 'brief adulterous affair' with the woman who later gave birth to their daughter, now aged three.

According to the Guardian, the mother Helen Macintyre, a professional art consultant, has previously lost a legal battle to keep secret the paternity of her daughter, who is named only 'AAA' in public court documents.

In a private six-day hearing at the high court last year, Macintyre said her daughter's paternity was exceptionally sensitive and delicate.

She said that it would be absolutely devastating for the three-year-old to learn of her paternity in the national press.

According to the report, however, it emerged that she had hinted at Johnson's identity to Nicholas Coleridge, the president of the major magazine publisher Conde Nast, in a conversation at a private house party in June 2010.

He court heard during hearings last year that Macintyre's daughter is alleged to be the second child conceived by Johnson as a result of extramarital affairs.

Lawyers for the Daily Mail argued that it was in the public interest to name Johnson as the child's father because it went to the issue of recklessness and whether on that account he was fit for public office, the report added.