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BBC reporter makes legal history

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON OCT. 9. A BBC journalist today made legal history when he won a defamation suit against the police in what is claimed to be the first ever successful libel action against Britain's guardians of law and order.

The case arose out of an undercover investigation by Donal MacIntyre for a BBC programme on the humiliations suffered by inmates of a state-run care home for people with learning disabilities. The programme, telecast in November 1999, caused a huge controversy and led to the closure of a care home in Kent where inmates complained that they were routinely assaulted by staff.

However police claimed after an investigation that Mr. MacIntyre had tried to `mislead' his viewers by selective editing. They threatened to sue him to recover £50,000 pounds which had been spent on `fruitless' investigation. The police claim flew in the face of an independent report which confirmed Mr. MacIntyre's allegations. The report said the methods used by the staff to deal with inmates were painful and led to "deprivation of personal rights'' of people with disabilities.

The media was split down the middle with The Sunday Telegraph, in particular, approvingly reporting the police side of the story.

The BBC, which had backed down over the controversy involving another of Mr. MacIntyre's programmes, backed him when he decided to sue the Kent police in what became of the most high-profile libel cases.

Nearly two years later, the police have admitted that they were wrong.

The chief constable of Kent Sir David Phillips and his two colleagues, named in the writ, have "apologised unreservedly'' and agreed to pay damages which are likely to leave the police poorer by nearly £700,000. The money is to be donated to charities which work for people with learning disabilities.

Mr. MacIntyre said : "This was never about cash. It was about the vindication of the BBC's journalism and of the experts on whose opinion the programme was based.''

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