Jefferies contempt case a 'watershed moment' for press

The coverage of the arrest of Chris Jefferies, on suspicion of murdering Bristol landscape architect Joanna Yeates, was "a watershed moment" for the UK's media, the Sun's publishing director Stephen Waring told the Leveson inquiry yesterday.

The Sun, alongside the Daily Mirror, was taken to court by attorney general Dominic Grieve over its reports on Jefferies' character in the wake of his arrest, with both titles successfully prosecuted for contempt of court.

The tabloids, published by News International and Trinity Mirror respectively, were also among eight titles successfully sued by Jefferies for defamation.

Waring said that the attorney general's tough stance on contempt of court by the press had "changed the culture" of how the Sun reports arrests.

Grieve has brought more contempt prosecutions against the press in his 18 months in office than his predecessors did in 10 years. He has successfully prosecuted the Sun (twice), the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Mail, is currently prosecuting the Spectator and recently dropped a case against Sky News.

Waring said that the Jefferies case had taken place in "an era where there was a far more liberal interpretation about what we could get away with in print".

"I'll give you two specific examples, one of which is the arrest of the Night Stalker, Delroy Grant, and another one, the 21/7 bombers' arrest, both of which under the present attorney general, I'm sure, would have produced contempt of court summons.

"Since the new attorney general took his post, he's made it clear that he wants a strict application of contempt."

Waring, who was duty editor during the story and responsible for a headline that implied Jefferies was "obsessed with death", apologised for the Sun's coverage.

"I was responsible for it and I'd just like to make a point on record that I'd like to express my sincere personal regrets that my actions contributed to and exacerbated the acute personal distress felt by Mr Jefferies, his friends and his family due to the articles that we published. 

"I apologise personally and on behalf of the Sun newspaper for not taking more appropriate precautions to prevent this."

Richard Parry, a reporter who covered the story for the Daily Mail, echoed Waring's statement about the story being a "watershed moment" for the industry.

Parry – who wrote several of the Mirror's articles on the case, including one cited by the attorney general in his contempt prosecution –  also apologised to Jefferies for "vilifying him" but said he was "happy with the way I conducted myself on this particular story".

"I tried to present as balanced an article as possible and the decisions that are made at an editorial level are out of my hands. I can only advise my content desk as to which direction I feel the story is going, and from the feeling on the ground."

Sun reporter Gary O'Shea also gave evidence about his coverage of the story. O'Shea repeatedly conceded that the tone of the paper's coverage "should have been more neutral and dispassionate".

Jefferies was described in reports in the Sun and the Mirror as "a peeping tom" and "nutty professor" with a "macabre fascination" and "academic obsession with death".

He gave evidence to the inquiry in November, telling the court that he was subject to a "witch hunt" by the press after his release.

The editor of the Daily Mirror, Richard Wallace, later told the inquiry the case was a "black mark against my record".

In a speech in December, Grieve said that prior to his appointment the British press had been "pushing at the boundaries" of what it could get away with under contempt of court laws and "subtly seeking to explore what is and isn't acceptable".

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