TV HORSE RACING TIPSTER ‘FLASH’ JOHN MCCRIRICK WON
TV HORSE RACING TIPSTER ‘FLASH’ JOHN MCCRIRICK WON ‘VERY
SUBSTANTIAL’ LIBEL DAMAGES IN THE HIGH COURT T0DAY (THU) AFTER A
NEWSPAPER CLAIMED HE WAS A COMPULSIVE GAMBLER AND HAD GAMBLING DEBTS
RUNNING TO THOUSANDS OF POUNDS.
ON MARCH 5 1984 IN A FRONT PAGE ‘EXCLUSIVE’ THE DAILY STAR
ALLEGED THAT SPORTING LIFE JOURNALIST MCCRIRICK, OF BOLSOVER STREET,
MARYLEBONE, WAS IN DEBT TO BOOKMAKERS AND THAT ONE OF THEM WAS
RECEIVING PUBLICITY FROM HIM IN LIEU OF PAYMENT.
‘THERE WAS AND IS NO TRUTH WHATSOEVER IN THESE VERY SERIOUS
ALLEGATIONS’, SAID MR RICHARD WALKER FOR MCCRIRICK.
SPORTING LIFE JOURNALISTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO OWE MONEY TO
BOOKMAKERS AND MCCRIRICK WAS SACKED THREE DAYS LATER THE COURT HEARD.
HE NOW WORKS AS A BETTING TIPSTER FOR ITV’S WORLD OF SPORT.
THE ARTICLE WENT ONTO SAY THAT HIS DEBTS TO VARIOUS
BOOKMAKERS WERE ‘SUBSTANTIAL’ AND SUGGESTED THAT MCCRIRICK HAD A
PROBLEM WITH GAMBLING.
HE SUED EXPRESS NESPAPERS LTD PROPRIETORS, OF THE STAR AND
TWO JOURNALISTS FRANK CURRAN AND PETER HOOLEY.
MR GEOFFREY SHAW, DEFENDING, ADMITTED ‘THESE ALLEGATIONS
WERE ENTIRELY UNTRUE.
THROUGH ME THEY OFFER THEIR SINCERE APOLOGIES
TO MR MCCRIRICK FOR THE PROFOUND DISTRESS AND EMBARRASSMENT WHICH
THEY HAVE CAUSED HIM’.
AFTER THE HEARING MR MCCRIRICK DESCRIBED THE DAMAGES HE HAD
RECIEVED AS ‘VERY SUBSTANTIAL’ AND DENOUNCED THE STAR’S METHODS OF
REPORTING AS ‘DECEITFUL’ AND AS ‘A GROTESQUE ABUSE OF PRESS FREEDOM’.
‘UNTIL JOURNALISTS THEMSELVES AND NOT JUST THEIR PAPERS ARE
FORCED PERSONALLY TO PAY SWINGEING LIBEL DAMAGES THE CRAVING FOR
INCREASED CIRCULATION WILL ENSURE THAT ALL MORAL AND ETHICAL
RESTRAINTS IN FLEET STREET REMAIN INEFFECTIVE’ HE SAID.
ENDS
