Bristol Evening Post caught out by PA mix-up

The Bristol Evening Post was forced to recall and reprint some of its papers after the Press Association supplied a picture of a South African businessman believing it was England cricketer Marcus Trescothick.

The Post printed a large picture of the man arriving at Heathrow Airport from Australia on its front page, saying Trescothick looked "haunted" after returning home from the Ashes Tour with a stress-related illness.

A separate agency contacted the Post claiming the picture was wrong. The Post then contacted PA before stopping its final edition's presses. A PA spokeswoman said: "Although it was not possible to obtain official confirmation, we believed we had identified [Trescothick's] flight and arrival time into Heathrow. "Our photographer duly took several pictures of a passenger arriving off this flight, who bore a striking resemblance to Trescothick. These images were transmitted on the agency wire service. "However, as a result of information received it became clear that the individual in the pictures was not Trescothick. Immediate action was taken to inform customers and the images were ‘killed'." The Post had gone to press at around 11.50am and some copies were already on sale. One Post journalist said: "A couple of people in the office said it didn't look like him and he'd really let himself go.

"It was a big embarrassment because he's our local super star from just outside of Bristol. This is a paper that comes to his house."

Assistant editor Kevan Blackadder said: "The minute we realised, we went to great efforts to ensure we stopped the presses and recalled all the papers we could. We then sent a new version out.

"When the picture first came through a number of people saw it, including people on the sports desk who had seen him face to face frequently."

The Post contacted Trescothick's family to explain PA's error. The Independent also used the picture.