Speaker's wife Sally Bercow is not 'some kitchen table blogger' and her tweet about a Tory peer had a major influence on him being falsely identified as a paedophile, a court heard yesterday.
Her 60,000 Twitter followers gave her message a readership larger than many local newspapers, the High Court was told.
Only a 'moron in a hurry' would have failed to understand that the comment she sent about Lord McAlpine referred to false claims that he had abused boys at a care home, it was alleged.
Hearing: Sally Bercow (left), who is accused of sending an allegedly libellous tweet about Lord McAlpine (right), was not 'some kitchen table blogger' , the High Court was told today
Mrs Bercow has always denied that her tweet on November 4 which said: 'Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *Innocent face*', defamed the former Tory party treasurer.
It was sent in the wake of a BBC Newsnight report that wrongly implicated a senior Tory from the Thatcher era in child sex abuse allegations.
Lord McAlpine was not named on the programme but was wrongly identified on the internet.
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Mrs Bercow's tweet fuelled the false allegations that Lord McAlpine was a paedophile, Sir Edward Garnier, for the peer, told the court.
He said: 'We are not talking about some kitchen table blogger addressing perhaps herself and one other person. We are talking about a pretty widespread readership.'
William McCormick QC, for Mrs Bercow – the wife of Speaker John Bercow – said she had promptly tweeted her apologies and provided letters making clear that the underlying allegations were untrue.
Legal action: Mrs Bercow used Twitter to name former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine, following a Newsnight report which alleged a senior Tory figure was a child abuser, but she denies this was defamatory
Couple: Mrs Bercow is married to Commons speaker John, who live together in their grace and favour flat at Westminster
She had also made an offer to settle the case which had not been withdrawn, he said.
But Sir Edward said Lord McAlpine had made three offers to settle the case, two in November and one in January, which had been declined.
Neither Lord McAlpine nor Mrs Bercow were in court for the peer's contested application for the defamation trial to be split in two, with the first hearing deciding the meaning of the tweet and, if that went in his favour, a second hearing on the appropriate level of damages.
Granting the application, Mr Justice Tugendhat directed Mrs Bercow to pay Lord McAlpine's estimated £17,000 costs of the preliminary hearing.
Lord McAlpine has already received six-figure payouts from the BBC and ITV. He has dropped claims against Twitter users with fewer than 500 followers.
Tory peer Lord McAlpine today demanded speaker's wife Sally Bercow pay him damages for wrongly identifying him as a paedophile on Twitter, the High Court heard.