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The Mercury was given exclusive access to a media call for broadcast journalists, where questions were fired by Sky, Central News, Channel Five and Calendar News – among a total of 12 crews at the George Hotel, Hathersage.

The BBC and ITN both beamed reports to more than a million viewers on prime-time early evening news slots.

Sky News and ITN even transmitted live broadcasts from the press conference. GMTV’s Marika McGregor was the first reporter to broadcast live from The George minutes before the conference. Her father was a photographer for the Mercury in the 1960s and 70s.

Stephen Downing said afterwards: “I knew there would be some people at the gates seeing me come out of prison and some local coverage, but it all seems to have gone out of proportion.”

Find out more on the background to this story here.

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