LEGAL UPDATE - MAY 2000
Cases of Interest
PETER FRANCIS MARK OATES v ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS LTD
The Claimant appealed the order of Gray J deciding that his libel action against The Mail on Sunday should be struck out as an abuse of process. He had previously brought proceedings against The Mirror in respect of articles arising out of the same events and had only been awarded nominal damages of 1p by a jury. The allegation complained of was that the Claimant had been involved in the distribution of pornographic videos at Broadmoor Hospital when he had been a patient there convicted of sex offences. The Court of Appeal held that it was clear that the gist of the articles complained of in both sets of proceedings was identical. Given the jury's decision in the first set of proceedings, there was nothing to suggest that the conclusion in the second claim would be any different and in those circumstances the judge had been entitled to have held that it was an abuse of process for the matter to go to trial.