Eye of the storm: Walmsley picture
The Grimsby Evening Telegraph has said it will be taking legal action against national newspapers and a picture agency which used its exclusive picture of murdered 14-year-old schoolboy Luke Walmsley.
The paper found the picture of the North Somercotes pupil, who was stabbed to death in a school corridor, in its files from a presentation and ran it in a late edition. It was planning to run the exclusive shot in early editions on Wednesday but found it was being used by the nationals.
Deputy editor Nigel Lowther said the picture had been scanned from the late edition by the Leeds-based RossParry picture agency and sent out to the nationals.
He said an advisory note was later put out by the Press Association warning that the picture had gone out without permission and was the copyright of the Grimsby paper, which is part of the Northcliffe group. Five national newspapers used the picture.
Lowther said: “This was a Grimsby Evening Telegraph picture that was ripped off by a picture agency and then sent to the nationals. We will be pursuing legal action against the agency and the papers that used our picture to protect our copyright.”
The Ross Parry agency confirmed that it had received a legal letter from the Grimsby paper and said it was unable to comment.
By Jon Slattery
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