WINNERS & LOSERS
Gawker and its founder Nick Denton
into bankruptcy. The privacy claim
has now been settled, with Hogan accepting $31m. A jury had awarded
him $140m, an award which Gawker had said it would appeal, but this
settlement brings an end to the matter without the need for further legal
hearings. Mr Denton called this end to
the case ‘a hard peace’.
CRIME: Retired police
officer convicted of
historical sex offences
SEX TAPE CLAIM SETTLED: HULK HOGAN
might subsequently inform HMRC
about other such schemes.
There are specific rules on confidentiality and disclosure of information that apply to HMRC, set out in
the Commissioners for Revenue and
Customs Act 2005. However, the
court emphasised that the normal
rules of breach of confidence also apply and the provisions in the Act are
based on that law.
Material relating to their tax affairs was clearly confidential to Ingenious Media and Mr McKenna.
To interpret the provisions of the
2005 Act so widely as to allow the
disclosure of information relating to
an individual’s tax affairs would significantly undermine HMRC’s duty
of confidentiality. The fact that the
briefing was ‘off the record’ made no
difference: the disclosure was no less
6 | zoom-in Winter 2016
impermissible because the HMRC
official thought his comments would
not be reported.
PRIVACY (US): Hulk Hogan
sex tape case finally ends
n Gordon Anglesea, who 22 years ago
won £375,000 in libel damages over
allegations that he was paedophile, has
been convicted of historic sex offences
against two teenage boys. Anglesea
had denied the allegations for 25 years
but was convicted by a jury of four
counts of indecent assault.
Allegations about Anglesea and his
connection to Bryn Estyn children’s
home in Wrexham emerged in 1991,
and over the next couple of years were reported in the press. In 1994 he sued The
Independent on Sunday, The Observer, Private Eye and HTV Wales for libel, winning £375,000. Private Eye paid £80,000
of that total. Its editor Ian Hislop welcomed Anglesea’s conviction with ‘grim
satisfaction’. Talking about the libel
case, he said: “I can’t help thinking of
the witnesses who came forward to assist
our case at the time, one of whom later
committed suicide, telling his wife that
he never got over ‘not being believed’.”
Hislop said Private Eye would
not be seeking to reclaim
the £80,000 damages:
‘Others have paid a
far higher price.’
The prosecution of Anglesea
followed
the
launch of Operation Pallial, which
looked into allegations of historical
abuse in North Wales in
the wake of the revelations
about Jimmy Savile.
Ian
Hislop
welcomed
Anglesea’s
conviction
with ‘grim
satisfaction’
n We have reported
in previous issues on
the legal actions
brought by former
professional wrestler Hulk Hogan against the
website Gawker.
The action related to a sex tape
of Hulk Hogan with
his friend’s wife, published on the Gawker website. The lawsuit ultimately forced