Libel trial over police investigation of false allegations
On Monday (28 Feb 2005) the now infamous claims made by Nadine Milroy Sloan that she had been raped by Neil and Christine Hamilton will return to the High Court where they will form the backdrop to another libel action.
Superintendent Christopher Miller is suing Associated Newspapers for libel in respect of articles published in the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard in September 2001 which he alleges accused him of conducting two grossly incompetent police investigations when he was a Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police.
The articles reported the alleged findings of an internal police investigation into the Milroy Sloan case and also stated that Mr Miller faced disciplinary charges for neglect of duty in respect of an earlier investigation.
The Defendants dispute that the articles bear the meaning alleged by Mr Miller, but say that they are true. The case will be tried by Mr Justice Eady and is expected to last three and a half weeks.
Milroy Sloan was jailed for 3 years for attempting to pervert the course of justice in 2003, after it emerged that her allegations against the Hamiltons were a complete fabrication.
These false allegations have already given rise to one libel action. Publicist Max Clifford was forced to withdraw allegations he had made on television when acting for Milroy Sloan after he was sued by the Hamiltons. The case settled with the payment of undisclosed damages and costs.
In the trial starting on Monday, Mark Warby QC and Adam Speker from 5RB and William McCormick (instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) are acting for Associated Newspapers.
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