Saturday 15 November 2014

Why the Mark Lewis settlement with the Met is so important

Why the Mark Lewis settlement with the Met is so important | Media | The Guardian: "The case goes back to September 2009, when Lewis gave evidence to the Commons culture and media select committee. He told MPs that there were 6,000 phone-hacking victims, which contradicted the News of the World's single "rogue reporter" defence.

 Two months later, the Press Complaints Commission chair, Lady Buscombe, made a speech to the Society of Editors in which she said that the then Met assistant commissioner, John Yates, had passed her reliable evidence showing that Lewis's statement was incorrect.

 Lewis sued Buscombe, the PCC and the Met on the grounds that he had been accused of lying to parliament and, in so doing, damaged his reputation. In November 2010, Buscombe and the PCC apologised to Lewis and paid him £20,000 in libel damages.

 Following last week's settlement, Lewis said: "The Metropolitan police have spent about £250,000 unsuccessfully defending my claim" 'via Blog this'

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