Banned jockey Dean McKeown has launched a legal action against the News of the World.
McKeown is demanding damages of up to £150,000 from publishers News Group Newspapers over a story headed “Betrayed” which appeared in the paper in October 2008.
The jockey has instructed law firm Stewart-Moore in a libel action over the article and an online version of the same story, headed “Dean McKeown betrays punters”, both of which he claims are defamatory.
According to a writ filed at the High Court, McKeown claims the stories meant he was part of a group of Northern jockeys who had defrauded punters by wrongfully disclosing inside information about horses to betting contacts, over the course of twenty years, in exchange for rewards.
McKeown, of Monk Fryston near Leeds, is seeking damages, and an injunction banning repetition of claims, saying his personal and professional reputation have been seriously injured, and that his feelings were gravely hurt by the allegations.
The jockey received a four-year ban from racing in October last year after the British Horseracing Authority found him to be part of a betting conspiracy.
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