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Teacher wins £49k in damages from publisher

scales-of-justiceA teacher has won £49,000 in damages from a newspaper publisher after defamatory material appeared in regional and national news titles.

Reach plc has been ordered to pay compensation to Martin Gilham after Kent Live, Mirror Online and the Sunday Mirror wrongly reported he had been found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by the Teaching Regulation Agency following an incident at the school in Margate where he worked.

An apology to Mr Gilham was published by the Mirror titles, but a High Court judge found “things went less smoothly” with the publication of Kent Live’s clarification in December 2018.

Delivering his judgment, His Honour Judge Lewis found Kent Live did not apologise and included further defamatory material “for reasons that are difficult to understand”, to the effect that Mr Gilham might be banned from the classroom.

The Mirror titles and Kent Live made a qualified offer of amends in May last year, including the payment of compensation and the publication of further apologies, but the parties were unable to agree on the wording.

All three titles published their version of the apology in June last year, leaving Mr Gilham “aggrieved” because he saw no reason why they needed to refer to his dismissal twice, or mention details of the original incident at all.

In his judgment, Judge Lewis found the apologies to be “grudging, unsuitable and insufficient in terms of providing adequate vindication, restoring the claimant’s reputation and reducing the distress and upset caused to him”.

He wrote: “[Mr Gilham] says he was devastated and very distressed to see the defendants’ reports on the outcome of the TRA hearing.

“He was particularly concerned by the suggestion that the TRA decision had affected his ability to teach, and that the articles suggested that he had been sacked as a result of the regulator’s decision.

“His statement refers to the difficulties he had experienced trying to get matters corrected, Kent Live’s decision to publish further defamatory material and the need to resort to solicitors to get matters sorted out.

“The claimant’s evidence is that since the articles he has suffered increased stress and anxiety. He now has low self-esteem and does not feel able to socialise, embarrassed by what has been published.

“He says that not a day goes by that he does not think of the articles and the effect they have now had on how he is perceived in the community. He describes the adverse impact that the publications have had on his home life and his family relationships.”

Judge Lewis gave “substantial credit” to the Mirror titles for the publication of their initial apologies which were “published quickly and it seems in good faith”, but awarded damages of £49,000.

The full judgment can be read here.

Reach plc has declined to comment.