A News Shopper story about the former north Kent chief of the Monster Raving Loony Party - who pleaded guilty to hitting his partner eight years ago - has been wiped from certain Google searches following controversial new EU laws.

Lord Toby Jug, 48 - real name Brian Borthwick - pleaded guilty to common assault at Dartford Magistrates' Court after he hit Julie Diana Smith at their home in Highview, Vigo, on August 14 2006.

Following the verdict he spoke to News Shopper about his battle with manic depression, which led to him being prescribed medication which he claimed made him "aggressive and hyperactive".

He added he and Miss Smith had been arguing and she said "a few things I did not agree with" before he hit her a couple of times on the arm and she called the police.

The story has now been partially removed from Google web searches under new "right to be forgotten" EU laws after the internet giant received a request for it to go.

Google will not say who made the request.

News Shopper received a notification from the company last week saying: "Due to a request under data protection law in Europe, we are no longer able to show one or more pages from your site in our search results in response to some search queries for names or other personal identifiers.

"These pages have not been blocked entirely from our search results, and will continue to appear for queries other than those specified by individuals in the European data protection law requests we have honoured."

The new laws have been criticised as the start of a new era of web censorship and a way for people or organisations to airbrush their internet history.

News Shopper editor Andy Parkes said: "People seeking to hide the misdemeanours from their past and cover up wrongdoing are being helped by Google. But it flies in the face of anyone who believes in press freedom.

"The ruling from the search engine giant says results that are "inadequate, irrelevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed" can be removed.

"However, in reality it is being used purely as an opportunity for unpleasant people to try to rewrite history and hide their unpleasant, often criminal acts from online archives.

"This newspaper will do all it can to protect its archive, both newspaper and website, and does not believe any factual story should be changed simply because nasty individuals would rather hide their past.

"There are, of course, occasions where people deserve a second chance and we would always seek to publicise the fact that someone has changed and turned their life around.

"However, this does not mean they should be able to hide away or lie about the past."

Borthwick, who is reportedly no longer a member of the Monster Raving Loony Party, refused to comment on the development.