Smutty email pranksters avoid sack

The five men, who worked at law firm Norton Rose, forwarded the intimate email exchange between Ms Swire and her boyfriend to their friends. It was then sent to an estimated worldwide audience of 10 million.

Norton Rose said that it had considered dismissing the responsible parties, but, having "carefully and thoroughly considered all the evidence and the options available", decided it was not appropriate to do so.

The company said in a statement: "The employees concerned are horrified by the consequences of, and genuinely regret, their actions. The firm regrets any offence caused by these employees, who reacted to a private email originating outside the firm."

It emerged yesterday that nine staff at the Financial Services Authority were suspended for forwarding the mail. Details of the disciplinary action faced by the Norton Rose employees were not available at the time of publication.