McAlpine vows to ‘punish’ ITV with hefty libel damages
Tory peer Lord McAlpine is targeting ITV in the latest stage of his litigation spree, vowing to punish the broadcaster by forcing it to stump up greater damages than the £185k he won from the BBC.
ITV has been given until this afternoon to respond to the demand, after McAlpine claimed their own on-air faux pas was more serious than the BBC’s owing to the ‘premeditated’ way in which Philip Schofield handed a list of alleged paedophiles to David Cameron on This Morning.
McAlpine was also conscious that any pay-out would ultimately be sourced from license fee payers, a situation not applicable to the commercial broadcaster.
A spokesman for McAlpine said: “This was also done in broad daylight in a premeditated way in front of the Prime Minister. It was that programme that prompted Lord McAlpine to come out with his statement.”
Next in line for legal action are an estimated 10,000 Twitter users, sourced from 1,000 original tweets and 9,000 re-tweets logged by a team of investigators cataloguing allegations made on social media.
This could amount to the largest group of defendants in British legal history although most ordinary people will only need to pay a nominal fine of between £5 and £10 to a children’s charity if they come forward and apologise.
High profile tweeters in McAlpine’s sights include comedian Alan Davies, Speakers wife Sally bercow and journalist George Monbiot.
An ITV spokesperson said they had received a letter from solicitors for Lord McAlpine and would be responding.