A weekly newspaper had to pulp thousands of copies of last week’s edition after accidentally publishing an alleged rape victim’s unobscured picture.
The error led to the Wiltshire Times recalling all issues of last week’s newspaper on Thursday afternoon, with an amended version hitting the streets more than 24 hours later.
The 30-year-old alleged victim had given an interview to the Times, while retaining her right to lifetime anonymity, after being told the Crown Prosecution Service was not going to charge her attacker.
After being correctly silhouetted by the photographer who took it, it is understood the picture was ‘lightened up’ in production at the paper’s Oxford printing press, revealing the woman’s face.
Readers were able to buy copies of the newspaper featuring the erroneous image on Thursday afternoon until the mistake was realised.
The alleged victim’s story was later run in print and on the paper’s website after the image of her face, pictured above left, was obscured to the degree necessary to prevent her identification.
Owner Newsquest Wiltshire has yet to respond to HTFP’s requests for a comment on the matter, but the official Twitter account of the Times blamed a “production issue” for the problem.
In a tweet last Friday the paper apologised to readers and informed them papers would be available in shops the following day.
According to its most recent ABC figures, the Times had an average circulation of 9,548 during 2014.
The alleged victim whose photo appeared in the story had awoken in a Trowbridge bedsit to find herself naked from the waist down and a man standing over her.
In the interview with the Times, she said police had told her they had a good case against the man, who they arrested soon afterwards.
But earlier this month received a letter from the CPS telling her it would be taking no further action as it was her word against his.
The man, who was a loose acquaintance, admitted to police he had sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
And, surely this has also identified the would-be alleged defendant?
A ‘loose acquaintance’ of this lady, who she alleges raped her and, according to her, the police had ‘a good case against’.
But he has denied it, and the CPS will not pursue the case.
This is not an interview with the victim of a convicted rapist, or with a victim of a rapist who is at large. We just don’t know what actually happened and the whole story should have had alarm bells ringing before it got to the presses.
Report this comment
you do have to wonder why they got involved in this story at all. Wait for the CPS decision and then follow the court case, surely?
Perhaps it was lack of experience somewhere.
A picture of back of head might have been safer than what they did.
Production can’t mess that up.
Report this comment
This is done by the Knowledge publication system. Pressure of workload probably a consideration as well.
Report this comment
Would this had happened if the paper had been printed at its own headquarters rather than some distance away in Oxford? I doubt it.
Report this comment
I agree totally with Confused but add one question: why on earth was it necessary to print a picture at all, even if it was in silhouette?
Report this comment
Ex-Insider – with you on the picture. The same goes for TV news which is addicted to having unnamed victims shown in silhouette, from behind in a darkened room, or so obviously an actress or another journalist – with their testimony spoken by an actor. What is the point of that?
The Wiltshire Times case is symptomatic of a growing and dangerous trend (notwithstanding the usual legal reasons) to leave out key points of truth and attribution and somehow increase the veracity of a story.
Report this comment
Bet it was software that automatically ‘corrects’ exposure and colour of pix. We had that and it did things like changing colours of uniforms because it though the pic was too red. There’s a lot to be said for human checks, trouble is papers no longer have enough humans.
Report this comment
Horrendous. But personally, I wouldn’t have touched that story with a barge pole.
Report this comment
In my day, as a chief sub, that story would have been on the spike. Some of those involved in this journalistic pantomime may wonder: What is a spike?
Report this comment
I was just thinking earlier that I haven’t heard a journalist use the term “spiked” for a long time.The first newsroom I worked in in 1995 had an actual spike but none of the ones after that did. The term “spiked” was still commonly used for quite a while though but then it seemed to die out and after a while I never heard it again.
Report this comment