One Direction star Harry Styles wins court order to stop paparazzi harassment

The singer, 19, had already attempted to persuade a number of photographers to stop their behaviour voluntarily

Harry Styles has won a court order to prevent the paparazzi from harassing him. (Getty Images)

Harry Styles has won a court order to prevent the paparazzi from harassing him.

The One Direction star, 19, had already attempted to persuade a number of photographers to stop their behaviour voluntarily.

But the talks had failed, forcing him to apply to the High Court for an injunction, his counsel David Sherborne confirmed.

Speaking to Justice Nicola Davies, who granted the order against a set of unidentified individuals known as "Paparazzi AAA and others" last Monday, Sherborne said: "This is not a privacy injunction. Mr Styles is not trying to prevent fans approaching him in the street and taking photos.

"He remains happy to do that, as he always has. Rather, it is the method or tactics which have been used by a certain type of photographer."

The injunction will prevent the photographers in question from pursuing the singer in a car or on a motorcycle. It also prevents them from placing him under surveillance, waiting within 50 metres of his home or loitering in order to monitor his movements and photograph him.

The case has been brought against a number of paparazzi photographers, four of whom are still in the process of being identified by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

A letter has been sent to the photographic agencies that have used their photographs and had contact with them.

The injunction will continue until another hearing in the week beginning 13 January, during which the judge will decide how the action should progress.

Styles did not attend the brief hearing in person.

One Direction topped a list of 2013 trending topics published by Twitter last week.

See Twitter's trending 2013 list in full here

Three of the five most retweeted messages of the year were posted by members of the boy band, with posts by Harry Styles being the most popular.

The boyband, who performed their new single "Midnight Memories" on The X Factor last night, also boast the fastest selling album of the year so far.