http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/24/...court-rules-3807443/

Dont know why that link is massive but it still works

SIlly little woman trying to create big waves in the shadow of her husband.

Glad she got what she deserved.

I'ma bit gutted for her really ....not sure why - but I am.

That's exactly how i feel about it Soozy

Wait what? Have the courts got nowt better to be doing?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22652083

Sally Bercow has agreed a settlement with Lord McAlpine.

I assume that she will also be liable to pay not only her legal and court costs but also Lord McAlpine's legal and court costs.

She has also said in her announcement:

"Today's ruling should be seen as a warning to all social media users. Things can be held to be seriously defamatory, even when you do not intend them to be defamatory and do not make any express accusation. On this, I have learned my own lesson the hard way."

A lesson to be learned for sure. The biggest lesson .........'money talks'.

Begs the question - has she not got anything better to do?

No comment.

Good thinking Soozy 

Typing out a tweet, and spending months and mega-poonds (thanks GJ ) dragging it through the courts are totally the same thing after all

Snidey finger pointing deserves a cuff round the lug. No?

Maybe Berkow will grow up and do something more worthwhile.

Whilst it seems a waste of court time and money, it does reinforce the message that you need to be careful what you write on social media. You can't just say what you like, especially if you make libellous remarks about someone.

Agree fully Yogi 

if i took everyone to court when theyve made an untrue comment about me on twitter-id be rich!

Pirate if - in your area - rumours were rife of possible child abuse and then someone named you, what would you do?

That's what Berkcow did, she pointed a finger and named someone.

id be pissed off

but she didnt actually point finger & plenty of others-without her notoriety & money, did the same

From what i've learned she was the first to call him by name.

Is that right?

Mr Justice Tugendhat's reasoning

• Many of Mrs Bercow's Twitter followers shared her interest in current affairs and would have been up-to-date with the Newsnight story
• Her inclusion of the phrase *innocent face* told readers that she was being "insincere and ironical", not asking a straightforward question as she had argued
• It was therefore reasonable to infer that she meant Lord McAlpine was "trending because he fits the description of the unnamed abuser"
• The tweet was therefore, by implication, a repetition of the accusations of sexual abuse broadcast on Newsnight
• Due to "repetition rule" in law, Mrs Bercow is treated as if she had made the original allegations herself, but with the addition of Lord McAlpine's name

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22652083

i think she tweeted *why is lord Mcalpine trending* *innocent face*  or something like that

i mean, we all knew what she was getting at

but other media had named him & members of the public people had named him aswell

not condoning what she did

he could have asked her to donate to charity & save court costs

i think what im saying is it went too far & could of been resolved with a public apology & a charitable donation from bercow

Mr Justice  Tugendhat added,

'There is no sensible reason for including those  words in the tweet if they are to be taken as meaning that the defendant simply  wants to know the answer to a factual question.

'The reader would reasonably infer that Mrs  Bercow had provided "the last piece in the jigsaw".'

Might explain why McAlpine pursued her but it seems rather a poor reason if it was trending elsewhere.

Whoah - bit wobbly type 

She had not replied to Lord McApline's repeated requests to apologise saying that what she had tweeted was not libellous - Mail article from November 2012:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...eld-disciplined.html

oh

ok, i didnt know that, cheers El

haha!

i thought i was having an eye test

I hope he's suing the police, then, seeing as they were the first to name him, when a victim of child sexual abuse pointed out one of his abusers to them, in a photo.

I think she was banged to rights, on this, but I do wonder why Lord McAlpine seems to have been happy for his name to be bandied about for so many years, as an abuser. Maybe he thought it was contained enough, until the Newsnight programme, and he was happy to protect his dead cousin's reputation?

Lord v Pleb.

Outcome never in doubt.

They're not called the Law Plebs for nout.

Just saw this on DS.

The Judge's brother was a prominent Tory MP at the time Lord McAlpine was Party Treasurer. It's called the Old Boy Network. They all look out for each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ...aron_Tugendhat

I saw her mouthing off on the This Morning show late last year at the height of this sex abuse scandal, and she was talking utter crap on a subject that she clearly knows very little about...im not surprised shes in trouble.