Libel payout for top police officer.

[Oldbillplod]

The press once again bull****ting to sell papers.

A top police officer has accepted £65,000 libel damages over a claim that he was a rapist and a wife beater.

Stephen Chamberlain, assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire, had brought high court proceedings over an October 2003 article in the Mail on Sunday.

His solicitor, Sarah Webb, told Mr Justice Eady in London that it had accused Mr Chamberlain of having beaten his first wife and later his live-in girlfriend and of having raped his first wife when she refused to have sex with him because she was six months pregnant and afraid of the risks.

It also said that he had caused the death of his unborn child by pushing his first wife down the stairs during a subsequent pregnancy when she refused to have sex with him, leaving her unconscious at the bottom of the stairs and causing her to suffer a miscarriage.

Mrs Webb said that these allegations were false.

Mr Chamberlain's first wife, to whom he was married twice, did not - during either set of divorce proceedings - make similar allegations.

The allegations of violence attributed to the live-in girlfriend were similarly untrue.

In addition, an allegation that Mr Chamberlain beat his elder son during an argument, resulting in his attending hospital with concussion, was also false.

Mrs Webb said that Mr Chamberlain was determined to clear his name of these untrue allegations.

He also feared that if he did not do so they would resurface in his professional life.

She said that Associated Newspapers Ltd had accepted there was no truth in the allegations, withdrew them, and apologised.

It has agreed to pay Mr Chamberlain damages and his legal costs. Afterwards, Mr Chamberlain's lawyers said that he had received £65,000 in damages and his costs.

[0311Marine]

More unbiased press in action, good to see its not just and American trend.