‘Baby P’ father wins libel case

The natural father of Baby P has been awarded £75,000 (€90,000) against the publishers of The People after being wrongly described as a sex offender convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl.

Lawyers for the father, who can only be referred to as “KC”, said the publishers of the Sunday newspaper were guilty of “one of the gravest libels imaginable”.

Mr Justice Bean, sitting in London, awarded KC his damages plus legal costs saying it was “difficult to think of any charge more calculated to lead to the revulsion and condemnation of a person’s fellow citizens than the rape of a 14-year-old girl”.

Baby P, later named as Peter Connelly, was 17 months old when he was found in a blood-splattered cot at his mother’s home in Tottenham, north London, in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries.

Tracey Connelly was jailed in 2009 after admitting causing or allowing his death. Her boyfriend, Steven Barker, and their lodger, Jason Owens, Barker’s brother, were found guilty of the same charge.