McAlpine to take action against ‘a lot of people’

A lawyer for Lord McAlpine said the former Conservative Party treasurer will be taking legal action against “a lot of people” who linked his name with unfounded allegations of child sex abuse.

Solicitor Andrew Reid said legal letters would be sent not only to broadcasters — including ITV’s This Morning programme — but also to individuals who mentioned the peer’s name on the internet, particularly Twitter.

A number of well-known people were on a “very long list” of tweeters who mentioned McAlpine, Reid said, warning that their messages could end up costing them “a lot of money”.

The move came as it was confirmed McAlpine will receive a payment of £185,000 after a settlement was reached last night with the BBC over false claims made in a Newsnight report, which initially reported that a senior Tory from the Thatcher era had been accused of child abuse.

Lord McAlpine said: “I am delighted to have reached a quick and early settlement with the BBC. I have been conscious that any settlement will be paid by the licence fee-payers, and have taken that into account in reaching agreement with the BBC.

“We will now be continuing to seek settlements from other organisations that have published defamatory remarks and individuals who have used Twitter to defame me.”

His solicitor said that This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield, by handing Prime Minister David Cameron a list of Conservatives which he had found on the internet, had effectively encouraged viewers to seek them out.

Reid called on anybody who thought they may have defamed the peer to contact him to reach a settlement, warning that this may be the cheapest outcome for them.

McAlpine has been contacted by many members of the public urging him to take action to end the phenomenon of “trial by Twitter”, which has seen users send out defamatory comments with apparent impunity, he said.

McAlpine yesterday said the incident had left him devastated and it got into his “soul”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme: “(Newsnight) could have saved themselves a lot of agonising, and money actually, if they had just made that telephone call.

“They should have called me and I would have told them exactly what they learned later on — that it was complete rubbish.”

He added: “It gets into your bones, it makes you angry, and that’s extremely bad for you to be angry, and it gets into your soul, and you just think there is something wrong with the world.”

McAlpine said the damage “can’t be repaired’ and he had been left with the legacy of suspicion.

He said his legal team will ensure that anyone who brings the matter up again will be “very, very foolish”.

He said the suggestion of being a paedophile — which is with him constantly — is one of the worst things of which anyone could be accused. “I don’t want to be too dramatic about the thing, but Boris (Johnson) got it right. There is nothing as bad as this that you can do to people,” McAlpine said.

“Because they are quite rightly figures of public hatred. And suddenly to find yourself a figure of public hatred, unjustifiably, is terrifying.”

Asked about his reputation, he said: “No, it can’t be repaired. It can be repaired to a point, but there is a British proverb which is insidious and awful where people say ‘there’s no smoke without a fire’, you know, ‘he appears to be innocent, but...’”

He went on: “It’s very difficult and so this is the legacy that, sadly, the BBC have left me with.”

Asked whether he felt he would recover from the incident, he said: “Well look, I’m 70 years old, I’ve got a very dicky heart. And so I don’t want to die. Not for another 20 years at least.

“But I don’t see it going away completely. I think in the light of the arrangements that I can make, my lawyer will make, anyone who does bring it up is going to be very, very foolish.

“I will feel better not from settlements, but from my wife, my family, my friends. The people I don’t even know who’ve written to me. That’s what makes you feel better. The settlement will just be a warning — don’t go there.”

He thanked accuser Steve Messham, a victim of child abuse at the home who mistakenly claimed McAlpine was his attacker, for having the courage to come forward and admit he was wrong.

The programme heaped more pressure on the BBC, which has been left reeling from the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

A review led by former Sky News chief Nick Pollard is already looking into an earlier decision to shelve a Newsnight probe investigation into Savile’s sexual abuse of youngsters.