Lord McAlpine lawyer: Sally Bercow tweet was sarcastically ‘pointing the finger of blame’
Sir Edward Garnier QC for Lord McAlpine told the High Court that Sally Bercow’s use of the words ‘innocent face’ in a tweet was sarcastic.
Bercow, who is getting sued for posting “Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*” on Twitter, says that her tweet, which came after a BBC Newsnight report suggested that a politician from the Thatcher years had abused boys, was foolish rather than libellous.
Garnier told Mr Justice Tugendhat that by the use of the ‘innocent face, "she was sarcastically pointing out that Lord McAlpine was trending and that he was trending because he was a paedophile.
"It negates any suggestion that the tweet was a neutral query to which she was looking for an answer.
"Put it this way, what was the tweet about if it was not a pointing the finger of blame at Lord McAlpine?"
McAlpine filed a formal libel claim on 7 December.