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Press Release
Date 3
October 2014
Carter-Ruck
Sunday Times
apologises and agrees to pay
Kate and
Gerry McCann £55,000 in
libel damages
The Sunday Times has agreed
to pay Kate and Gerry McCann
£55,000 in
libel damages (all of which
they will donate to two
charities - Missing
People and the Joe Humphries
Memorial Trust).
Mr and Mrs McCann's
complaint related to an
article by the Sunday Times'
"Insight" team published on
the front page of the
newspaper in October
2013. The article alleged
that Mr and Mrs McCann and
Madeleine's Fund
had kept secret from the
investigating authorities
crucial evidence (primarily
consisting of "e-fits"
obtained by private
investigators) relating to
their
daughter's abduction.
The Sunday Times'
allegations were completely
false. As the newspaper
now accepts, there is no
question of the McCanns
having sought to
suppress any evidence;
indeed all of the material
collated by the private
investigators had been
provided to the relevant
Portuguese and
Leicestershire police four
years earlier. The private
investigators' report
(including the e-fits) was
also provided to the
Metropolitan Police in 2011
shortly after the Met
commenced its review into
Madeleine's
disappearance.
The Sunday Times has also
agreed to pay the McCanns'
legal costs of
bringing the complaint.
The McCanns have today
issued a statement
commenting on this case, a
copy of which is attached.
For further information
please contact Adam Tudor at
adam.tudor@carterruck.
com or Zoe Brocket at
zoe.brocket@carter-ruck.com
3 October
2014
Kate and
Gerry McCann hit out at
"same old press
abuse" by
newspapers
The couple
receive £55,000 in libel
damages from
Sunday Times
Kate and Gerry McCann today
hit out at the continued
failure of the UK newspaper
industry to put their house
in order after the Sunday
Times agreed to pay £55,000
in
libel damages (all of which
they will donate to charity)
for allegations made at a
time
when the Sunday Times was
proclaiming that press abuse
was at an end and there
was no need for the
independent regulation
proposed by Leveson a year
previously.
The McCanns were libelled in
a front-page article by the
Sunday Times' "Insight"
team in October 2013.
Gerry McCann pointed out
that the newspaper's
behaviour typified all that
was wrong
with journalistic practices.
• the Sunday Times team did
not provide the McCanns with
any proper
opportunity to comment on
these appalling allegations
before they were
published. They withheld
important aspects of the
allegations they were
intending to make and chose
not to publish key parts of
the McCanns'
response. Above all, the
Sunday Times was on express
notice that the
allegations were false, yet
they still went ahead and
published them.
• Initially, the McCanns
sought to resolve the
complaint amicably by
writing to
the Editor direct. However,
the half-baked, inadequate
response they
received meant that they
were left with no choice but
to instruct their lawyers,
Carter-Ruck
• Faced with the grotesque
and utterly false suggestion
that they had, in effect,
deliberately hindered the
search for their daughter
and thereby let the trail go
cold, Mr and Mrs McCann had
no alternative but to bring
a libel complaint in
order to correct falsehoods
which could only serve to
damage the search for
their daughter
• Eventually, two months
later, the Sunday Times
acknowledged that its
article
had been completely false
and published a full
retraction and apology. But
even then the apology was
tucked away on an inside
page. The newspaper
even refused to include the
word "apology" in its
headline.
• It then took a further 9
months, and the issuing of
Court proceedings by the
McCanns, to require the
Sunday Times to make
sensible proposals to
compensate them and to allow
them to make that fact
public. Every penny of
the damages will be going to
charity and the Sunday Times
will also be
paying the McCanns' legal
fees.
1
McCann/Sunday Times - Press
Release - 3.10.2014
1652465_1
Speaking today, Mr and Mrs
McCann said
"The Sunday Times has
behaved disgracefully. There
is no sign of any "post-
Leveson improvement" in the
behaviour of newspapers like
this.
"Despite the history of
admitted libels in respect
of my family by so many
newspapers, the Sunday Times
still felt able to print an
indefensible front page
story
last year and then force us
to instruct lawyers - and
even to start Court
proceedings -
before it behaved
reasonably. But the damage
to reputation and to
feelings has been
done and the Sunday Times
can sit back enjoy its sales
boost based on lies and
abuse"
"This is exactly why
Parliament and Lord Justice
Leveson called for truly
effective
independent self-regulation
of newspapers - to protect
ordinary members of the
public from this sort of
abuse."
"It is also why the
provision of low-cost
arbitration for libel and
privacy claims is so
important. We were able to
use our lawyers, Carter-Ruck,
who were willing to back
our complaint and who agreed
to act on a "no win, no fee"
basis - but even that form
of access to justice is
currently under threat. The
fact is that most families
could not
take the financial and legal
risk of going to the high
Court and facing down a big
press bully as we have. That
is why News UK and the big
newspapers have opposed
Leveson's reforms and the
arbitration scheme which is
a necessary part of it. "
"It is why the latest
industry poodle, IPSO, which
the Times editor was allowed
to
help appoint, does not even
have the power to insist on
its members providing
arbitration that Leveson
required."
"It is time for Parliament
to remind the newspaper
owners that it is the people
and
their elected
representatives who run the
country,
not the moguls, and if they
continue to reject Leveson
then as Lord Justice Leveson
himself said, it will be
imposed on them to protect
the public and public
interest journalism."
Notes to editors
The defamatory article
alleged that Mr and Mrs
McCann
had kept secret from
the
investigating authorities
crucial evidence (primarily
consisting of "e-fits"
obtained by
private investigators)
relating to their daughter's
abduction.
2. The Sunday
Times' allegations were
completely false.
3. As the
newspaper now accepts, there
is no question of the
McCanns having
sought to
suppress any evidence;
indeed all of the material
collated by the
private
investigators had been
provided to the relevant
Portuguese and
Leicestershire police four
years earlier. The private
investigators' report
(including
the e-fits) was also
provided to the Metropolitan
Police in 2011 shortly
after it
commenced its review into
Madeleine's disappearance.
2
McCann/Sunday
Times - Press Release -
3.10.2014
1652465_1
4. The Sunday
Times refused to apologise
or to make a prompt and
prominent
correction.
The correction they printed
6 weeks later was on an
inside page and
was
inadequate.
5. The
McCanns were forced to make
a legal claim in the High
Court because of
the Sunday
Times' refusal to accept
responsibility.
6. Only after
the newspaper was sued did
the it accept liability and
offer to settle
the case.
3
McCann/Sunday
Times - Press Release -
3.10.2014
1652465_1 |
