Leading satirical and current affairs magazine, “Private Eye”, could go out of business, its editor warned, after being landed with a £600,000 bill for libel damages.
On May 24th, 1989, a jury at the High Court made the record award for damages after finding that Private Eye had libelled the wife of notorious serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper.
The award was £100,000 more than the previous British record sum for libel and left Private Eye editor Ian Hislop reeling. He pledged to lodge an appeal, but warned that if the ruling stood it could put the widely-read magazine, founded in 1961, out of business.
Speaking on the steps of the High Court (pictured) he pointed out that the award was 100 times larger than that made to three of Sutcliffe’s victims. In what has since become a famous quote, he added: “If that’s justice, then I’m a banana!”
The case went back to an article published in Private Eye in January 1981 in which the magazine alleged Sonia Sutcliffe had signed a deal with the Daily Mail to sell her story for £250,000, in effect profiting from her husband’s deplorable crimes. It claimed several tabloid newspapers had been in a squalid race to buy her story and she had negotiated to get the best deal.
During the libel case, Mrs Sutcliffe’s defence team said she had done no such deal and had no desire to capitalise on what her husband had done. Instead she had been plunged into a nightmare of unwanted press attention and scrutiny through no fault of her own and had rejected all financial offers even though the money could have helped her start a new life.
The jury sided with Mrs Sutcliffe and her lawyers, deciding she had been libelled by the article in Private Eye, but it was the size of the award for damages which grabbed the headlines. Awards in libel cases had been rising steadily, mirroring a trend in the USA, but many argued the situation was getting out of hand.
Two years previously, former Conservative MP Jeffrey Archer had been awarded £500,000 from the Daily Star over its article claiming he slept with a prostitute. The award against Private Eye topped that previous record. It was ordered to pay Mrs Sutcliffe £25,000 immediately and the rest pending the outcome of the magazine’s appeal.
At that time awards for damages were set by the jury in libel cases, but leading libel lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck (despite being frequently lampooned himself in Private Eye) said this latest award was hugely disproportionate and called for a change in the system. He said juries in libel cases should be closely guided on the sums they award by the presiding judge in the case, which would reduce the need for subsequent expensive appeals, which were becoming almost routine.
Private Eye’s editor Ian Hislop added that he would appeal to his magazine’s loyal readership for help in meeting the legal bill and donations flooded in to a “Bannaballs Fund”, named after his “I’m a banana” quote. When the appeal was heard, the award for damages was reduced to £60,000 – just a tenth of the original award. Private Eye then scored a public relations coup by donating the remainder of its Bananaballs Fund (a significant sum) to the families of Peter Sutcliffe’s victims.
Several years later, when Mrs Sutcliffe brought another libel case against the News of the World newspaper, it emerged she had in fact benefited financially from her husband’s notoriety, although the particular details of the Private Eye story had been inaccurate.
As for the previous record holder, Jeffrey Archer, he was later convicted of lying during his libel trial against the Daily Star and jailed for four years for perverting the course of justice. He also agreed to pay more than £1.8m in damages, costs and interest. Since the heady days of the 1980s, awards for damages in libel cases have become far more realistic, reducing the number of subsequent appeals.