FORMER Royal butler Paul Burrell's complaint over a News of the World story that he boasted of having sex with Diana, Princess of Wales, has been upheld.
The Press Complaints Commission has ruled that the newspaper's failure to include Burrell's denial of the claims in the story could have misled readers.
The story centred on claims by Ron Cosgrove, Burrell's brother-in-law, that the former butler
confided the secret to him in a pub in 1993. The newspaper published the front-page story with the headline "Burrell: I had sex with Diana".
The commission said: "The claims about him were significant and substantial, and published with great prominence. The information came from the recollection of a 15-year-old conversation, and was not corroborated on the record by anyone outside Mr Cosgrove's immediate family. It was clear to the commission in these circumstances that there was a strong likelihood that the omission of any denial from Mr Burrell may have misled readers into believing that he accepted Mr Cosgrove's allegations."
It added that while there has "never been an absolute requirement for newspapers to contact those who are about to feature in articles", a failure to so "may constitute a lack of care".
The commission heard from the newspaper that it had three sources for the story, a former associate of Burrell, Cosgrove and his son Stephen, and that all three had signed affidavits supporting their comments. The News of the World said it did not approach Burrell before publication because it was concerned he would block the story with an injunction. It did not publish his denial after the story appeared because, the newspaper said, he was "a notorious liar" and had been branded as such by the judge at the inquest of Diana, Princess of Wales.
But the commission said in its ruling that it "has never said that people have no right ever to comment on a story, or to be offered a right of reply, if they have misled people in another context".
It added: "It has never been an absolute requirement for newspapers to contact those who are about to feature in articles. This would be impractical for a number of reasons: often there will be no dispute about the facts, or the information will be innocuous; the volume of people mentioned in straightforward stories would make it impossible; and legitimate investigations might on some occasions be compromised by such a rule. However, in this case the newspaper made the wrong decision and the complaint was upheld."
In recent years, 50-year-old Burrell has made millions of pounds in the US by cashing in on his connection to Princess Diana. With two books about his life with the Princess to his name and a successful range of goods, Burrell is said to have made about £25m. He has a home in Cheshire, where his wife lives, but he is now based in Florida. He has rarely been in the UK since he was secretly filmed by the Sun newspaper admitting he did not tell the "whole truth" to the Diana inquest.
At the time there was speculation Burrell might be investigated for perjury but the Metropolitan Police decided there was insufficient admissible evidence.
