SARA KEAYS, ex-mistress of former Cabinet Minister Lord Parkinson of
Carnforth, yesterday accepted ''substantial'' undisclosed libel damages
over newspaper allegations that she wrecked his career by seeking
revenge for breach of a promise of marriage, and made their daughter
Flora a ''victim of spite''.
The damages and legal costs are to be paid by Birmingham Post and Mail
Ltd, publishers of the Sunday Mercury.
Mr Edward Garnier, counsel for Miss Keays, told Mr Justice Drake in
the High Court that the allegations appeared in an article by former
Mercury journalist Susan Clark in December 199O, shortly after the then
Mr Cecil Parkinson announced his resignation from the Cabinet following
the Conservative Party leadership contest.
The newspaper apologised and accepted that the resignation followed on
the departure of Mrs Thatcher as Prime Minister and had nothing to do
with Miss Keays. She had never acted out of spite and had always put her
daughter's interests first.
This case was the latest in a series of libel actions launched by Miss
Keays, 44, of Marksbury, Bath. Last February, she won #105,000 over a
magazine article which she said labelled her a kiss-and-tell,
money-grubbing bimbo. Previous settled actions, only two of which
reached court, are thought to have netted her in the region of #100,000.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article