McAlpine wins first round in Bercow tweet case

The former Conservative party treasurer is seeking damages over a posting on Twitter which he says meant that he was a paedophile who was guilty of sexually abusing boys living in care.

Ms Bercow has always denied that her November 4 tweet, “Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *Innocent face*”, was defamatory.

Lord McAlpine’s QC, Sir Edward Garnier, told Mr Justice Tugendhat that Ms Bercow had 60,000 followers so her readership was bigger than some local newspapers.

“We are not talking about some kitchen table blogger addressing perhaps herself and one other person.”

Neither Lord McAlpine nor Ms Bercow were in court for the peer’s application for the trial to be split in two, with the first hearing deciding the meaning of the tweet and, if that went in his favour, a second hearing on the level of damages.

Ms Bercow’s tweet followed a Newsnight report that wrongly implicated Lord McAlpine in child sex abuse allegations.

In February, the peer, who has already received six-figure payouts from the BBC and ITV, announced he was dropping claims against Twitter users with fewer than 500 followers and instead asked for a charitable donation to BBC Children In Need.

Ms Bercow’s counsel, William McCormick QC, said she had promptly tweeted her apologies and made an offer to settle, which had not been withdrawn.

Granting the application, the judge directed that there should be a preliminary hearing on what was the actual meaning of the words complained of – both a natural and ordinary meaning and an innuendo meaning.