McAlpine wins case over libellous tweet

Alistair McAlpine, the former UK politician wrongly identified as a paedophile by the BBC, won a libel lawsuit in London against Sally Bercow, the wife of the House of Commons speaker John Bercow.

Her posting appeared two days after a Newsnight report last November wrongly implicated the former Conservative Party treasurer in allegations of sex abuse at Bryn Estyn children’s home in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mrs Bercow denied that the tweet — “Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *Innocent face*” — was defamatory, but Lord McAlpine, who has already received six-figure payouts from the BBC and ITV, said it pointed “the finger of blame” during a media frenzy.

Ms Bercow settled the dispute with Lord McAlpine for an undisclosed amount, his lawyers said in a statement today.

Ms Bercow’s post on Twitter linking him to the story was defamatory, Judge George Tugendhat said in his ruling today.

“I find that the Tweet meant, in its natural and ordinary defamatory meaning, that the claimant was a paedophile who was guilty of sexually abusing boys living in care,” the judge said.

The BBC apologised and agreed to pay Lord McAlpine, a former Conservative Party treasurer, £185,000 (€215,000) over the story last year. Before the broadcaster retracted the story, Lord McAlpine was the subject of thousands of tweets linking him to the scandal.

Ms Bercow apologised today for distress she caused. “To say I’m surprised and disappointed by this is an understatement,” she said in a statement. “However, I will accept the ruling as the end of the matter.”

A lawyer for Lord McAlpine, Andrew Reid, said the "failure of Mrs Bercow to admit that her tweet was defamatory caused considerable unnecessary pain and suffering" to Lord McAlpine and his family.