Essex Police is facing criticism after the press regulator threw out its complaint about The Telegraph’s reporting of its investigation of Allison Pearson.
The force claimed that a column by Pearson and a news report of a visit made to her home by officers on Remembrance Sunday last year were inaccurate, but the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) found that its complaint was without foundation.
Mark Lewis, Pearson’s lawyer, said he was “bemused as to why the police found it appropriate to file a report to a regulator” in the first place.
Pearson was visited by two officers at her home, who told her she was being investigated over a tweet she had posted on X one year earlier – and subsequently deleted – that a complainant claimed had stirred up racial hatred.
The Essex force claimed that The Telegraph’s reporting was inaccurate because Pearson had said she was told she was being investigated for a non-crime hate incident (NCHI), when the force said she was actually the subject of a criminal investigation.
But Ipso said The Telegraph had correctly reported Essex Police’s written statement that the inquiry was into a criminal offence, notwithstanding Pearson’s belief that she had been told on her doorstep that it was a NCHI.
In its ruling, Ipso said that when The Telegraph had put Pearson’s claims to the force before publication, its response “made clear that the police were investigating the matter as a criminal offence [but] the position regarding what the writer had been told during the visit had not been disputed or corrected”.
By including Essex Police’s response to Pearson’s claims, “care had been taken not to publish inaccurate information”, Ipso said.
Pearson is suing Essex Police and the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner for damages.
Mr Lewis said: “I welcome this ruling so that we can press ahead with Allison’s claim against Essex Police to determine the truth about what happened on that Remembrance Sunday.”
Pearson said: “I am delighted that Ipso has confirmed I was entitled to tell the public what happened to me on the morning of Remembrance Sunday over a tweet deleted a year earlier. I felt it was in the public interest, and still do.
“My legal team will now pursue my case against Essex Police and the commissioner of police.”
There’s more on this story here.
