Lord McAlpine Reaches £125,000 Settlement With ITV And Phillip Schofield Over This Morning List

Phillip Schofield And ITV Settle With Lord McAlpine For £125,000

Lord McAlpine has reached a £125,000 settlement with ITV and Phillip Schofield - and now his lawyer has vowed to go after "large scale tweeters."

The broadcaster is the second name in a long list of organisations and individuals pursued by Lord McAlpine for wrongly linking him to a paedophile ring.

Last week the BBC paid out £185,000 to McAlpine over a Newsnight programme which mistakenly implicated by him in a paedophile ring that targeted children at the care home in Wrexham.

Schofield hands Cameron the list live on TV

Action is now being considered against a "very long list" of Twitter users who wrongly named the former Tory politician, thought to include comedian Alan Davies and the Commons Speaker's wife Sally Bercow.

And it emerged yesterday that police are starting a "scoping process" to look into whether any criminal offence has been committed.

His lawyer Andrew Reid told the BBC's World At One apologies would not suffice. "We've had to deal with the large actions - ITV, BBC and now we're starting to deal with what we call large scale tweeters.

"We have now heard from Mrs Bercow's solicitors, and no doubt progress will be made there in due course," he said

"There will be damages and costs."

And he warned that their software didn't just cover Twitter: "We're not just going to be looking at Twitter," he warned. "Please come forward, it's much easier."

Lord McAlpine has asked those who linked him to child abuse allegations to apologise formally and pay a "sensible and modest amount", which he plans to donate to BBC Children in Need.

Lord McAlpine has said the BBC could have saved "a lot of agonising and money" by simply calling him before the programme went out

The peer said the damage of the Newsnight report "can't be repaired" and he now has to live with the legacy of suspicion.

Newsnight carried a full, on-air apology for the broadcast a week later.

An official report by the BBC's Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie into the botched investigation concluded that Newsnight staff had failed to complete "basic journalistic checks".

Mr MacQuarrie also found there was confusion about who had responsibility for "final editorial sign-off", adding that the programme's editorial management structure had been "seriously weakened" as a result of the editor having to step aside over the Jimmy Savile scandal, and the departure of the deputy editor.

Disciplinary action is being pursued over the incident.

Lord McAlpine has said the BBC could have saved "a lot of agonising and money" by simply calling him before the programme went out.

In a statement, ITV said: "ITV and Phillip Schofield have now reached agreement with Lord McAlpine to settle his libel claim, made in relation to the This Morning programme broadcast on November 8 2012.

"ITV and Phillip Schofield apologise unreservedly to Lord McAlpine, have agreed the terms of a statement to be made in open court, and have agreed to pay him damages of £125,000 and his legal costs."

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