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October 8, 2012updated 09 Oct 2012 1:05pm

Times pays out £42,500 for Nightjack deception

By Press Gazette

 

The Times has settled a legal claim brought by "Nightjack" blogger Richard Horton for £42,500 plus legal costs. 

Horton sued for breach of confidentiality, misuse of private information and deceit after he was exposed in The Times as being the individual behind the anonymous Nightjack blog in 2009.

It emerged earlier this year that The Times had apparently misled a High Court judge during a hearing in which Horton tried to prevent publication of the Nightjack story.

The Leveson Inquiry heard that reporter Patrick Foster had hacked into Horton’s email account in order to discover his identity.

In August Foster was arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Times editor James Harding apologised for the Nightjack affair during an uncomfortable grilling at the Leveson Inquiry in February.

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David Allen Green revealed the Nightjack settlement on his New Statesman blog today.

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