News of the World made hush payment of £125K to McCanns

News of the World made hush payment of £125K to McCanns


Confidential deal towards search fund for Madeleine was part of apology for tabloid's publication of mother Kate's diary extracts

Daniel Boffey

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 December 2011 13.48 GMT



Kate and Gerry McCann giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry over coverage of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance. News of the World made a confidential payment for publishing Kate's private diaries. Photograph: Pool/Reuters


The News of the World paid £125,000 to the fund supporting the search for Madeleine McCann as part of an apology for publishing Kate McCann's diaries – on condition that the terms of the deal remained secret.

The payment was made after the missing girl's parents expressed their outrage at the story, which Kate McCann said made her feel "mentally raped". All the parties involved in the negotiations over the payment, which was agreed in September 2008, were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement hiding the scale of the newspaper's culpability.

The payment was made despite claims by the defunct newspaper's editor at the Leveson inquiry last week that he believed he had had the full support of the McCanns to publish. Colin Myler, who edited the NoW from 2007 until it closed this year, told the inquiry he had received repeated assurances from his head of news, Ian Edmondson, that the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, supported publication – a claim which has been strenuously denied.

Myler told the inquiry that he subsequently ran an apology and paid a "substantial sum" because "he felt very bad that she didn't know". However, the Observer has learned that the NoW initially tried to minimise the compensation. A source at News International, the owner of the newspaper, said there were hours of negotiations between the newspaper's lawyers and Carter-Ruck, the solicitors hired by the McCanns, in the days following publication of the story on 14 September 2008.

A deal was finally struck in which a £125,000 payment was agreed, but all parties were obliged to sign agreements that they would not talk about the size of the compensation. Last night Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman declined to comment on the revelation.

The Leveson inquiry into the media will hear this week from former NoW sports journalist Matt Driscoll, who was awarded almost £800,000 for unfair dismissal in April 2007 while on long-term sick leave for stress-related depression following a campaign of bullying provoked by the newspaper's then editor, Andy Coulson.

It will also hear via video link from Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror and the NoW, who now works for CNN in New York. At 28, Morgan was appointed editor of the NoW, making him the youngest tabloid newspaper editor in history. He was editor of the Daily Mirror for more than 10 years, but was sacked in 2004 after the newspaper conceded that photos it published apparently showing British soldiers abusing an Iraqi were fake.

Morgan claimed in a GQ magazine interview in 2007 that phone hacking was "widespread" and that "loads of newspaper journalists were doing it" when Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in January of that year.

Asked in the interview whether he knew about voicemail interception while he was editor of NoW, Morgan said: "Well, I was there in 1994-95, before mobiles were used very much, and that particular trick wasn't known about. I can't get too excited about it, I must say. It was pretty well known that if you didn't change your pin code when you were a celebrity who bought a new phone, then reporters could ring your mobile, tap in a standard factory setting number and hear your messages. That is not, to me, as serious as planting a bug in someone's house, which is what some people seem to think was going on."

In 2006 Morgan wrote an article for the Daily Mail claiming that he was played a tape of a message Paul McCartney left on the mobile phone of Heather Mills. "The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back," he wrote. "He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang We Can Work It Out into the answerphone."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/17/news-of-world-mccanns-payment

Anyone new to this story would never guess that there was a missing 3 year old child at the centre of this. They would only gage it was only about libel & lawyers and making money

So Kate was paid £125k for her diary and she agreed to keep quiet.
But instead she told the Leveson Inquiry about it for what reason? More money, compensation?
Is there no depths these greedy people won't stoop to?

In his third witness statement on link below Colin Myler says the NotW mounted an appeal for donations to the Madeleine Fund and this was successful and raised 1.5 million pounds in 48 hours.

Item 6 here..............

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Third-Witness-Statement-of-Colin-Myler.pdf

candyfloss wrote:In his third witness statement on link below Colin Myler says the NotW mounted an appeal for donations to the Madeleine Fund and this was successful and raised 1.5 million pounds in 48 hours.

Item 6 here..............

[url=http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Third-Witness-Statement-of-Colin-Myler.pdf

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Third-Witness-Statement-of-Colin-Myler.pdf[/quote[/url]]



Where has all the money gone?

Perhaps to reimburse one of their rich backers who provided upfront funding for PR costs/lawyers etc?

Is there a trail of money to be followed?

All that money has probably been given a good wash, just like the curtains.

125k from TNoTW and how much from the Sun, was it 200k? All in all a lot of money for a few lists of the early days, records of runs and more than anything else Kate's sickening off loading of her selfish whines.

Yes indeed a lot of money but not much about a missing three year old and the hours and days spent walking over scrub and looking in abandoned ruined buildings. But eh, she didn';t have the foot gear only the new pink trainers.

Note how the article heading has changed ffrom the one posted earlier, from this........


News of the World made hush payment of £125K to McCanns

Confidential deal towards search fund for Madeleine was part of apology for tabloid's publication of mother Kate's diary extracts




To this now.....



McCann fund received £125,000 from News of the World

Confidential deal towards search fund for Madeleine was part of apology for tabloid's publication of mother Kate's diary extracts


Daniel Boffey

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 December 2011 13.48 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/17/news-of-world-mccanns-payment

Smokeandmirrors wrote:All that money has probably been given a good wash, just like the curtains.

Or cuddlecat....which probably is the only item that would have had any evidence of an abductor on it

All this whooshing is alarming...! Not even the hint of shadiness is permitted to be connected with them in a headline.. Hmmmm I wonder who gave the order to change it .... Well done Annabel for capturing the original.

annabel wrote:

Thanks Annabel! Also good to know there are believers in Pays Bas.

happychick wrote:So Kate was paid £125k for her diary and she agreed to keep quiet.
But instead she told the Leveson Inquiry about it for what reason? More money, compensation?
Is there no depths these greedy people won't stoop to?

If all parties involved signed the confidentiality agreement to put it to bed, why did mccanns rehash it at LI?
Not about the compensation which incidentally no one knows whether it is accounted for in the Fund as the accountings for the Fund are neither comprehensive nor transparent, but even the mention of the diary debacle should have been off limit - isn't that the whole point of the secrecy signing.

If certain bits can be mentioned and certain bits cant than what's the whole point of the confidentiality agreement.
Is the mccanns breaching that confidentiality clause? What's betting the NOTW is pissed off with them over their treacherous behavior.

Why did they accept payment and why did they have to sign a confidentiality to keep the 'payment' secret. Surely it cant only be payment that they want kept in the dark? so which side has secrets that they want hidden?

NOTW? Don't make sense - they should have nothing to hide after they paid up and apologised conceding to their understanding.
Which side suggested the confidentiality signing?

I bet the diary saga is not as straight forward as put forward at the LI.

mrscee wrote:All this whooshing is alarming...! Not even the hint of shadiness is permitted to be connected with them in a headline.. Hmmmm I wonder who gave the order to change it .... Well done Annabel for capturing the original.

CM is working overtime doing the round of the press - monitoring and controlling. And these are people with nothing to hide!

Its about time someone sued these mccanns...they are committing more libel and lies than anyone

Hopefully the way they are continuing will push someone too far and the truth will come out. They are biting the hands that feed them...keep it up mccanns!!

They are biting the hands that feed them...

Absolutely JD. And that's what I don't understand.... what on earth has possessed them to get involved in this Leveson thing? They had nothing to gain and everything to lose.... I have a tiny hope ( only a little one though!) that maybe they have been manouvred into it by someone who is fed up of the story now, and sees a way through this enquiry to blow the whole sorry can of worms apart.

What I like to know is how much hushed money they received and where was it accounted for?

NOTW reportedly helped them raise 1.5m within 48 hours of the Fund going up.

Paid them $500 for book serialization
Paid them $125 for diary publication
Are both considered hushed money or only one - not sure about that. What is there to be hush about is the pertinent question.

Daily M paid them 600K
paid T7 375K (donated to the Fund)
Evening Standard ?
Express ?

What about other fund raising events?
Who else paid them?

They must the only parents who racked in on the back of their missing child.

When you see it all written out like that its quite shocking. I cannot think of one other missing person who has generated soooo much money. It must be really galling to someone like Kerry Needham that she has had to fight so hard to keep Ben's story alive and to finally get a fresh investigation, while the McCanns are literally having cash thrown at them by the papers.

I think they are playing a very dangerous game though. It looks like they are getting desperate with the mudslinging at the Leveson Inquiry. I think that when it does all come out, the papers are really going to go to town, having been forced to keep it quiet for so long. I am sure that they have all the evidence, they are just not allowed to print it.

What would be of more interest is : why was BK involved as mediator?

Must be a rather sticky situation between NOTW and CM if a 6-way negotiation (NOTW, mccanns, CM, BK, Tom Crone, CR) was involved before a settlement reached and mutual agreement signed to keep the deal confidential.

Mutual agreement means mutual benefits to both sides else the side with nothing to lose agreeing to support the side with everything to lose simply makes no sense, so it must be not just the SUM paid out that they were trying to keep under wrap. It must be something more than that - something is fishy about this deal.

It would be interesting to know contents of that confidential deal.

Poor, poor Madeleine. Barely gets a mention from her parents, campaigners, CM, CR et al at the moment - it's all about then now isn't it? Or has been from the start.

sammyc wrote:Poor, poor Madeleine. Barely gets a mention from her parents, campaigners, CM, CR et al at the moment - it's all about then now isn't it? Or has been from the start.

Glad you mentioned it. But then Madeleine is a trademark not a living, talking child. That would have been too damn awkward.

From Anorak.................

Madeleine McCann: When Hush Money Becomes A Donation


OUR Maddie: Anorak’s look at Madeleine McCann in the news: when News of The World “hush money” becomes a donation.

THE dread News of The World paid £125,000 to Madeline McCann fun. The money was made as part of the paper’s apology for publishing Kate McCann’s private diaries without her permission.

The Guardian says the money was paid “on condition that the terms of the deal remained secret”. A confidentiality agreement was signed in September 2008.

Last week, however, the NoW’s last editor Colin Myler, told the Leveson Inquiry that it was his belief the McCanns had okayed the paper’s use of the diary. The Guardian says the McCanns deny the claim.

All sides are sticking to any agreement, if indeed onr exists, and not talking on the matter.

One thing os interest is that the Guardian’s headline was altered. The initial headline spoke of a”hush payment”. Why? A simple error – or more “sexing up” at the Guardian..?


As for the case, well the Star says:

POLICE have finally admitted Madeleine McCann was abducted four years ago.

Fact! How did they prove it? We are not told:

Her parents Kate and ­Gerry had fought ­authorities to accept she was snatched from their holiday apartment in ­Portugal.

But only now have ­detectives put in writing that her case is one of ­abduction.

The Met at first refused to release paperwork under the Freedom of Information Act on the grounds it would “adversely harm the ­investigation”.

But, after an appeal, ­police finally handed over details to the Daily Star Sunday last week after a wait of nearly three months.

A source close to the McCanns, both 43, said: “Kate and Gerry are pleased the police are treating it as an abduction because that’s what they have said was the case since Madeleine went missing.”

We do not see hos the Met proved the child was abducted. But if the Star says so, it’s good enough, right?

http://www.anorak.co.uk/305919/madeleine-mccann/madeleine-mccann-when-hush-money-becomes-a-donation.html/

From Max Farquar..........


Hush Up The Hush Payment

Well, here’s a strange thing, that occurred over on the Guardian website yesterday. When their article about the McCann evidence, at the Leveson inquiry, first went up it had this headline … “News of the World made hush payment of £125K to McCanns”. Then, for some reason or other, the headline was changed to … “McCann fund received £125,000 from News of the World”, which puts a completely different spin on the whole story.

Normally, when an editorial change is made to an online article, you would expect to see when that article was updated, within the information under the ‘Article history’ tab. Nope. Not in this case. Nothing about the ‘hush payment’ headline. Only a mention of an alteration for publication in The Observer at 00.10 GMT, hours after the headline change was made.

Does any of this really matter or surprise? No. Probably not.

But I do find myself wondering … “what was all that about then?”





http://www.maxfarquar.com/2011/12/hush-up-the-hush-payment/