I'm happy to put the record straight says Daily Express owner

NEWSPAPER owner Richard Desmond expressed satisfaction last night at the conclusion of his three-week court battle with journalist Tom Bower.

Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond

Mr Desmond, chairman of Northern and Shell, which owns the Daily Express and Sunday Express, sued Mr Bower for libel over claims made in his 2006 biography of Conrad Black.

Although he was unsuccessful in establishing that he was libelled, Mr Desmond said it had been worth bringing the action in order to get the opportunity to put the record straight.

Following the verdict before Mr Justice Eady in Court 13 of the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Desmond, who was accompanied every day throughout the case by his wife Janet, said he remained satisfied he had brought the action.

Mr Desmond said: "I sued Mr Bower for defamation because he made inaccurate and damaging allegations about me, yet he refused to apologise and publish a correction.

"Bower made a series of errors about events and timings and even got the name of one of my newspapers wrong.

"His biggest mistake was in thinking I would not go to court to uphold my reputation and the resulting action has cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds to defend a few ill-thought-out remarks that were not even essential to his book."

Mr Desmond concluded: "It was worth it to stand up in court and set the record straight."

During the trial, the jury heard how Mr Bower had made allegations about Mr Desmond in one passage of his 2006 book Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing On The Edge.

He claimed Mr Desmond had used his publications to attack Lord Black, something he vehemently denied throughout the case.

Despite the pair being engaged in a supposedly bitter feud, the court heard evidence of how they shared warm and jovial correspondence.

Mr Bower also asserted that Mr Desmond had come off second best following a mediation meeting between them to settle their differences.

But the jury heard evidence that the references to Mr Desmond in the book contained a series of factual errors.

At one point, Mr Bower claimed a story appeared in the Daily Express when in fact it had appeared in the Sunday Express.

The jury found in favour of Mr Bower by a majority verdict of 10 to two.

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