Mr Daniel Tarrant and The Herald

The Press Ombudsman has decided to uphold a complaint by Mr Daniel Tarrant, made through his solicitors, that references to court proceedings in an article about him in The   Herald on 25 June 2013 were significantly misleading and, in that respect, a breach of Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy) and 7 (Court Reporting) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

In the article, which reported on a court case held the previous day at which the complainant pleaded guilty to a number of charges, it was stated that the complainant had pleaded guilty to charges which,  it reported, his solicitor had said,  after an earlier court hearing, he would be vigorously contesting.

These charges against the complainant at the earlier court hearing, however, had included a charge of corruption, which had, in the interim, been withdrawn.

The article, in these circumstances, was misleading in that it failed adequately to report or clarify the fact that the charges to which the complainant was now pleading guilty differed significantly from the charges proffered at the earlier hearing because they did not now include the charge of corruption.

The complaints under Principles 1 and 7 are therefore, in this respect, upheld.

Mr Tarrant also maintained that allegations in the article that he had links to the gang of a named criminal were untrue, and he complained that these allegations were therefore in breach of Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy), 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment), 3 (Fairness and Honesty)  and 4 (Respect for Rights) of the Code of Practice.  However, the Press Ombudsman concluded that, in the absence of sufficient verifiable or corroborative evidence from either the newspaper or the complainant in relation to these elements of the complaint, no decision could be made under the Code of Practice on the significant and serious issues raised.

16 April 2014