Sir Nicholas Mostyn, 54, a top lawyer and High Court judge, admitted being unfaithful, according to court documents from the Principal Registry of the Family Division.

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But he was not at the brief hearing in central London where his wife Lady Mostyn was granted a decree nisi, reports the Daily Mail.

The judge left his wife, with whom he has four kids, when he fell for 40-year-old lawyer Elizabeth Saunders, whose barrister husband was shot dead by police marksmen during a siege just off the King’s Road in Chelsea in May 2008.

Lady Mostyn said she had first learned of his affair in December 2010, and she found it “intolerable” to continue living with him, the papers revealed.

Sir Nicholasm, whose past clients included Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce from Heather Mills, earns 172,000 pounds-a-year.

After the divorce he has been nicknamed ‘My Payout’ because of the huge settlements he has won for a succession of divorced wives.