Sorry we called you a sex pest

On 4 November, Express Newspapers were in court again, this time to say sorry to former MP Stephen Hesford:

In Court yesterday, we apologised to Stephen Hesford former MP for West Wirral.

On 17 October 2009, we published an article entitled “MP who took moral stance “was a sex pest”. The article reported on proceedings before the Employment Tribunal in Liverpool the day before brought against Mr Hesford by a former employee for sexual discrimination.

The article also stated that a claim for sexual harassment had been made but wrongly implied that Mr Hesford was being accused of personally having sexually harassed his former employee and as such was a hypocrite having resigned a month earlier as a matter of principle as a parliamentary aide to the Attorney General.

We accepted that there has been no suggestion of any sexual misbehaviour by Mr Hesford and that the proceedings against him were in his capacity as employer.

We apologised to Mr Hesford and have paid him damages and costs.

The Yorkshire Evening Post added:

Counsel said that Express Newspapers withdrew the allegations unreservedly.

"In fact the claim against the claimant was as employer rather than for anything that he had done personally.

"The defendants are here today to apologise to Mr Hesford and have paid him a sum in damages together with his legal costs."

The newspaper's counsel, Clare Kissin, said that it apologised for any damage, distress and embarrassment caused and welcomed the opportunity to set the record straight.

(From Minority Thought)