McAlpine 'to take legal action' over abuse claims

Lord McAlpine 'to take legal action' over abuse claims
And about time too!

"And all the others who have used the internet and just let people know where to go and find the answer because they made these statements recklessly."

Someone we know did that, didn't they? Oh wait, I remember - it was Bennett.

Congratulations, Schofield, assorted witch-hunters, conspiraloons and general irresponsible morons. You've handed the authorities the perfect excuse to clamp down hard on the internet in the UK.

It was foreseen that someone would eventually rise up against this witch hunt; sadly, as you have said Bonny, the real victims will be the ones to suffer because of the idiots!

I am genuinely angry about that, Tony - I said right at the start that this was in danger of putting child protection in the UK back decades.

But none of the idiots who were revelling in the witch-hunt stopped for one minute to think about that, or about the consequences of their lust for people to be 'named and shamed' in the court of bl**dy public opinion. They didn't care whether anyone was guilty or innocent, they just wanted blood, like every mob through history.

It was inevitable that, sooner or later, someone would foul up badly. And Schofield did just that, with his stupid list of names from the internet, which he so gleefully presented to the PM. He reminded me of nothing as much as some hypocrite sneak 'denouncing' his neighbours to the Inquisition/Gestapo/NKVD.

I sincerely hope that is his career over.

Has The World gone completely mad? Bennett and his ilk started this insanity with their five year vendetta against The McCanns. The Hate Sites have thrived unchecked, and consequently think that they can get away with anything, and say anything about whoever attracts their attention.

So, The McCanns finally took steps to curtail Bennett's antics, but still he is mouthing off.
And so are his supporters. They are all running riot, and no one with the authority is doing anything to stop them.
Justice has gone completely by the board, and everybody is guilty until proved innocent, and often not even then.
I cannot believe what I am now watching. And I am beginning to welcome the thought of a clamp down on their precious Free Speach.

crazytony wrote:It was foreseen that someone would eventually rise up against this witch hunt; sadly, as you have said Bonny, the real victims will be the ones to suffer because of the idiots!

But it is still being left to individual to defend themselves, Tony. And some of those can't afford to.

It gets worse:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20269114

Lord McAlpine gets man's apology over abuse claims


A former resident of a north Wales care home has apologised for making allegations of sexual abuse against a Conservative politician.

Steve Messham said a case of mistaken identity had led to peer Lord McAlpine being linked to the claims.

It comes as the solicitor for Lord McAlpine threatened legal action against those who had linked him to the historical child abuse claims.

Mr Messham offered "sincere and humble apologies to him and his family".

In a statement on Friday evening, he said: "After seeing a picture in the past hour of the individual concerned, this [is] not the person I identified by photograph presented to me by the police in the early 1990s, who told me the man in the photograph was Lord McAlpine.''

============

Now, I do not blame Mr Messham for this, the poor man has had a terrible life, and been very badly damaged by what happened to him when he was in supposed 'care'.

I DO blame the irresponsible, thoughtless, morons who have been whipping up mob hysteria for weeks now.

Each and every one of them should hang their heads in shame.

And I would like to know which police officer gave him a photo of someone who WASN'T Lord McAlpine.

The Police told him it was Lord McAlpine? What the hell is going on? I think I feel sick.

I don't know what is going on, Sabot. I haven't done for the past few weeks; I only know I loathed the hysteria being whipped up by the tabloids, and the witch-hunt on the internet and elsewhere.

I do hope Bennett sees this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/09/lord-mcalpine-raises-legal-action

Quote:

Steve Kuncewicz, a lawyer specialising in media and social networks, said: "If the BBC has said something that doesn't name him directly, but allows people to put two and two together, then there would be a risk in that. We're talking about one of the most serious libels you can make, he's been falsely accused of a very, very serious criminal offence."

However, the media law expert David Banks, co-author of McNae's Essential Law for Journalists, said he did not believe the BBC had broadcast enough for viewers to identify McAlpine.

Newsnight described the subject of the allegations only as a leading Conservative figure during the Thatcher era, which Banks believes is sufficiently vague for the BBC to have a strong defence if McAlpine attempts to sue.

"I don't think the BBC have really done enough to identify McAlpine, and the action I think would fail because of that," Banks said.

But internet users who explicitly linked McAlpine to the abuse allegations online would not be protected by the BBC's defence.

Niri Shan, head of media law at London solicitors' firm Taylor Wessing, warned that "ignorance is no defence" for Twitter users and that they could easily find themselves in the high court if McAlpine chooses to take action.

"If you publish to a third party that someone is a paedophile or a suspected paedophile then you are liable to a defamation claim," he said. "They're just as responsible as a newspaper or broadcasters, and just as liable."

Individual Twitter users could even face legal action if McAlpine sues the BBC, because the corporation could argue that it is being sued as a result of what other people have published.

You know why The Nazis lost The War. Fighting on two Fronts. And Bennett has got more than enough to contend with at the moment.
Not that this has ever stopped him from dropping himself in the shit.

Mark Williams-Thomas‏ @mwilliamsthomas
Victims of child abuse need great care & carefully handling. Treatment of Steve Messham has been a disgrace - used for others gain.

He has some nerve; he started this shambles with the 'Duncroft girls' who have since been revealed as being somewhat unfamiliar with the truth.

I would laugh if this wasn't so serious. And I ain't half glad I don't live in Britain at the moment. They've all gone raving bonkers.

Don't ask me what's going on, Sabot, I have no idea, it's like being caught in a tornado. I cannot say I have much time for Cameron, or for Tory grandees like Lord McAlpine, but perhaps the truly bizarre events of the last 36 hours will have lanced the boil - and given a few people pause for thought.

Go back to what his lawyer, Reid, said:

We need to take a number of different actions. Firstly to try to get this taken down from the internet which is not going to be easy.

I don't know if it will be actually that hard. Much of the really vile stuff has been coming from the Icke forum, which needs disinfected anyway - the anti-Semitism on that site turned my stomach. I cannot believe people actually idolize Icke, though I suppose plenty thought Jim Jones was the New Messiah, too.

There are also blogs like that vile aangerfan, or whatever it's called - another anti-Semitic cesspit.

Not-Bennett's site is a giant libelfest over this, no rumour, gossip or invention too disgusting and bizarre to be rejected.

Lord McAlpine isn't going to get every bit of tittle-tattle removed, but I am not sure it will be as hard as his lawyer thinks to deal with the worst of it - and the sources.

This bit was interesting:


"And all the others who have used the internet and just let people know where to go and find the answer because they made these statements recklessly.

Head Hounder was eagerly directing traffic to a real sewer.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold. Lord McAlpine certainly won't need to make Conditional Fee arrangements, etc - he has very deep pockets indeed.

He is a toughie as well, Bonny. Somedebody might have picked on the wrong one.

Mark Williams-Thomas‏@mwilliamsthomas

Let down again.The treatment of Steve Messham has done considerable damage & set back the massive gains made following #jimmysavile exposure

Self-promoting ar@e. He means the 'considerable damage' to the column inches he has been getting since he started this fiasco.

And 'fiasco' is what you get when self-appointed 'experts' set themselves up as higher authorities than the police.

Any sign of him telling the truth and admitting why all those high-profile dawn arrests didn't happen? Just wait till THAT hits the mainstream media.

Hounder clutches at straws:

Shown a photograph in the early 90s so 20 years ago and told it was Lord McAlpine by the police so what did Lord McAlpine look like 20 years ago as he , Steve Messham, has seen the now aged whatever lord McAlpine and said it isn't the same man, well of course he would look different now as to 20 years ago, we all do.

Really? He's barely changed:



He was short and plump years ago, he's still short and a bit plumper.

Better put that pitchfork down, that bird won't fly.

What massive gains following The Jimmy Savile Exposure?

MWT got to be the centre of media attention? If you go back, the Savile compo-seekers were NOT going to the police, they were going to him, and he was then deciding whether or not to pass their info on to the police.

This may have something to do with the dead silence from the real police, after all those dramatic press conferences with promises of dawn arrests of dozens of high-profile celebs.

Meanwhile, back at the Beeb:



Wonderful! Between him and the compo-seekers, the licence is going to treble...



Sadly for the straw-clutching hounders, his Lordship has changed very little over the years....

So it's hotting up a bit now that the suing has started. And guess what, it isn't one of the "Victims" doing the suing.
Someone made a mistake. This so called abuser isn't dead. Let's see them talk their way out of this.

I felt so sorry for Mr Messham today, Sabot, the poor man looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights. None of this was his doing, and the people who manipulated this witch-hunt, on and off the internet, should hang their heads in shame for abusing him all over again.

bb1 wrote:I felt so sorry for Mr Messham today, Sabot, the poor man looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights. None of this was his doing, and the people who manipulated this witch-hunt, on and off the internet, should hang their heads in shame for abusing him all over again.

So do I feel sorry for him, Bonny. Christ knows what went on when he was first brave enough to complain. Something stinks, and I don't think it was Lord McAlpine.
Even I can spot a genuine case, which is why I wasn't too impressed with most of the dolly birds in The Savile Scandal. Although heaven knows what I would have done without the input of Anna Raccoon. I would probably have shut up and slunk away. I am not very brave at the best of times.

Sabot wrote:
He is a toughie as well, Bonny. Somebody might have picked on the wrong one.

He is also not a well man; one doesn't want this kind of smearing at the age of 70, or in fact at any age. LL

In 1987 he had bypass surgery, which led him to relax his lifestyle and stop smoking. In 1999 he had further heart bypass surgery that led to complications resulting in him having a tracheotomy and difficulty speaking.

My my, the thick plottens!

I have just seen this link on DS:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?p=62235629#post62235629

which leads to an old piece, by a now-deceased writer:

http://www.richardwebster.net/print/xfileon4.htm

concerning one Angus Stickler, who nearly ten years ago was trying to carve himself a niche in the 'abuse coverup' industry. The author regards him as a bit of a charlatan.

Fast-forward to Newsnight's woes, and last night's announcement that there would be:

An "immediate suspension" of all co-productions with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism which Newsnight worked with on the programme


And what do we see?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Stickler

Angus Stickler is the lead reporter for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/author/angus-stickler/

Archive for Angus Stickler

All that's needed now is for Duarte Levy to join in.

And as it has now been revealed that MWT and Watson are collaborating:

Truth To Power ‏@_truthtopower_
@mwilliamsthomas Have you been in contact with Tom Watson to compare notes?


3h Mark Williams-Thomas ‏@mwilliamsthomas
@_truthtopower_ We are meeting but struggling to get time when both free

People might think we are, in fact, seeing a Perfect Storm of people with 'credibility' issues exploiting abuse victims, and setting off a witch-hunt without the slightest care who gets hurt along the way.

But that would be really, really, cynical - wouldn't it?