A former Penthouse pet's attempt to sue News Corp for defamation over an article that claimed she was a prostitute and ran a drug ring has been thrown out by the NSW Court of Appeal, partly because the claims were based on her own evidence at her criminal trial.

Simone Farrow, who is serving a prison sentence for drug smuggling, took action over an article published in The Sunday Telegraph that she said carried the defamatory imputations that she formed a secret sexual relationship with a prison guard in return for being allowed to make phone calls that were not recorded, that she ran a drug ring, had skipped bail, was a prostitute and was convicted of criminal offences.

The court heard Simone Farrow used her image as a swimsuit model as a cover for her role in the exporting of drugs at her criminal trial.

The story ran under the headline "Drugs, sex and an officer" and alleged that she had sex with a prison guard in exchange for favourable treatment, which Farrow denies.

The NSW District Court rejected her claim as an abuse of process, given some of the claimed imputations were incontrovertibly true – that she had skipped bail, had pleaded guilty to a charge of importing crystal methamphetamine and was sentenced for that offence to a term of 11 years' imprisonment.