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July 17, 2003updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

NoW apologises for Bishop claim

By Press Gazette

The News of the World has apologised to the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, after falsely claiming that he offered a £50,000 bribe to a paedophile priest.

The NoW published a story in January based on transcripts of an alleged conversation in a prison cell between a former priest convicted of child abuse and Bishop Howard Tripp, who was visiting him. The NoW claimed O’Connor offered £50,000 for the defrocked priest to “disappear”.

The Catholic Church has always claimed the transcript of the conversation was a hoax.

In a deal brokered via the Press Complaints Commission, the NoW published an apology that stated: “We know this story to be untrue, although it was based on what we believed at the time to be convincing evidence.”

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