A man who allegedly made threats in letters sent to a regional newspaper journalist and a councillor is being sued for harassment.
Former councils standards watchdog Malcolm Haggart was accused at a civil case at Plymouth County Court of making ‘threats’ to Councillor Terri Beer, and Plymouth Herald journalist Keith Rossiter.
The court heard that Mr Haggart had sent a letter to the political reporter which referred to being cut up and put in lobster pots.
He is being sued by Mrs Beer for harassment over two separate letters he sent her in December 2009.
The row began when he sent her a letter in August 2008 in which he said he hoped she achieved an ‘all-over-tan’ on her recent holiday.
Her complaint was initially of sexual harassment and led to an investigation which cleared Mr Haggart of breaching Plymouth City Council’s code of conduct. Related correspondence, including the original letter, was leaked to The Herald.
Solicitor Tony Jaffa told the court how Mr Haggart had made “threats” to The Herald’s political reporter Keith Rossiter in a letter that mentioned his daughter and her then school.
Mr Jaffa told the court: “There was a reference to in olden times people like Mr Rossiter being cut up and being placed in lobster pots some 20 miles south of the Eddystone Lighthouse.”
Mr Haggart had wanted Mr Rossiter quizzed in court over the source of the leak, but his summons was struck out.
He said he believed two documents – from the police and the Press Complaints Commission – named Mrs Beer as the source.
But witness Jim Webster, Plymouth’s then top cop, said he had drawn no such conclusions in his reply to a complaint made by Mr Haggart against Mrs Beer – and Mr Duncan told the court Mr Rossiter had not revealed his source to the PCC.
Mr Haggart, a former member of the city’s standards committee, is counter-claiming that Mrs Beer breached the Local Government Act by passing documents to The Herald.
Mr Recorder Gardner QC adjourned the case for judgement, due later this year.
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A good reason for local hacks on front line to avoid facebook.
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Hard to avoid Facebook, most now have to have accounts so they can “like” their paper’s page, as many are now asked to do by management.
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House Rules. have to have Facebook accounts? I think invasion of privacy laws would cover anyone not wanting to comply with this “request” if it came up at an employment tribunal.
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Ahh, the retuirn of the Ludites.
Journalists steering clear of Facebook??? Really?? A chance to engage directly with 30million users in the UK. I suppose it is best that journos ignore this fringe market.
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The council geezer and his lobster pot threats sounds a couple of shrimps short of a sea food medley.
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@Closedbook. Your view on Facebook, Sir, is symptomatic of all that is wrong with journalism.
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Ed. Your view on @Closedbook, Sir, is symptomatic of someone who uses sweeping statements when they don’t really understand the problem.
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Defo with Joe on this one.
You have your newspaper’s facebook, where you can do all that networking stuff “engaging with 30 million users” (haha! AS IF) without having your own name on the damn thing.
Status update – What’s on your mind: The overwhelming desire not to tell the internet my private business.
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Cherrywonder I never said engaing with 30 million users, I said a chance to engage with 30 million users. In the same way that a local paper has the chance to engage with everyone in their publication area in theory. Just because most don’t get anywhere near engaging with everyone in the local community, is that a reason to pack up and go home?
Perhaps a better way to do it would be to look for new channels and some innovation.
Content is not king anymore, delivery is. Have you not noticed that Twitter beats the traditional news to everything? Have you not noticed that Twitter is growing while newspapers are shrinking?
It’s time to look at news and media as a whole. Facebook, the internet, pinterest etc, etc are all part of that. Turn you back on them and you are turning your back on potential audience.
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