Sky to pay out over Madeleine media allegation

ROBERT MURAT yesterday accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over an allegation that there were strong grounds for believing he was guilty of abducting Madeleine McCann.

Murat was not at London’s High Court for the settlement of his action against British Sky Broadcasting Ltd.

His solicitor Louis Charalambous told Mr Justice Eady an article and video on the Sky News website claimed that in the early days after Madeleine’s disappearance from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007, Murat’s behaviour was reminiscent of child murderer Ian Huntley. The article, which was published until April this year, and the video, which was accessible until this September, also suggested Murat had deliberately tried to mislead journalists by pretending to be acting in an official capacity for the police.

Victoria Shore, counsel for BSkyB, which is also paying Murat’s costs, made an unreserved apology for publishing the false allegations, and the distress caused.

Charalambous told the judge that the allegations were entirely untrue and it was accepted that Murat had no involvement whatever in the abduction of Madeleine.

He said that Sky’s apology would appear on its website for 12 months.

Ms Shore said that it very much regretted the distress caused by the publications.

Outside court, Charalambous said that the settlement represented the final stage of Murat’s claims against those sections of the British media “which defamed him so terribly”.