Gary Flood wins Supreme Court ruling against The Times

Edwin Coe is delighted to announce its successful Supreme Court ruling with the announcement today of its client’s win against The Times newspaper.

Acting for police officer, Gary Flood, Edwin Coe brought a case for defamation against The Times newspaper after an article was published in The Times and on The Times website suggesting that there were strong grounds to believe that Mr Flood had been guilty of corruption for taking bribes from Russian exiles. The matter was complicated by the fact that the printed article in question was kept on the paper’s website in an electronic form after DS Flood had been exonerated by a police investigation. Gary Flood was awarded substantial damages for the website publications as well as all his costs in December 2013. The Times appealed the cost order and their appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in December 2014.

The Times then appealed to the Supreme Court in connection with the cost order and against the order requiring it to pay success fees and the insurance premium.  It argued that payment of the success fees and insurance premium violated its rights under the Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. However, today the Court found in favour of Gary Flood. This matter started in 2006 with the initial publication by The Times, and Edwin Coe is delighted with the ruling for its client.

Nick Neocleous, Edwin Coe partner, has been acting for Gary Flood throughout this case. He comments: “This was not a case for the faint-hearted. It has been a long and bumpy road, with two trips to the Court of Appeal, two to the Supreme Court and numerous other hearings. Much law has been made along the way that has developed the manner in which competing human rights should be treated. This final decision develops in particular the Art 10 rights to freedom of expression and the competing rights of Mr Flood to rely on the law as it stood when he commenced the litigation.”