The psychiatrist concluded that Alan, who had physical and learning difficulties, had been so severely affected by his experience that he suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome.

At Leeds County Court, the judge held that the searches were wrongful (and hence not protected by statutory authority) because of the battery and invasion of the Wainwrights' "right to privacy", which he conceived to be a trespass to the person.

The Court of Appeal did not agree with the judge's extensions of the notion of trespass to the person and did not consider that apart from the battery, which was unchallenged, the prison officers had committed any wrongful act.

Lord Hoffmann held that there was no tort for invasion of privacy because, based on experience in the United States, it was too uncertain.

In Lord Scott's opinion, the way that the strip searches were carried out had humiliated and caused distress to both Mrs Wainwright and to Alan and was "calculated (in an objective sense)" to do so, even if that was not the intention of the prison officers.