TV Review: The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies

Can I be arsed to list all the newspapers who CJ sued for libel who are now saying this was a wonderful programme of great import?

PS No.

Wonderfully queeny portrayal by Jason Watkins. Very Dick Emery. Bafta?

Christopher Jefferies: Drama

The retired teacher vilified by the press after he was arrested on suspicion of murdering his tenant Joanna Yeates is the subject of a two-part drama

Christopher Jefferies couldn't bear to watch his arrest acted out for a new ITV drama, he's told Radio Times.

The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies has been written by Peter Morgan – the man behind critically acclaimed Frost/Nixon and The Queen – with W1A actor Jason Watkins (in character above) playing the retired schoolteacher. It dramatises the month after Jefferies was arrested on suspicion of killing landscape artist Joanna Yeates in December 2010, and the shocking way he was subsequently hounded and demonised by the tabloid press.

Jefferies was later released without charge and another of his tenants, Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak, was ultimately convicted of Yeates' murder.

During filming the director – Roger Michell, a former pupil of Jefferies – invited him on set to watch the arrest scene but the retired schoolteacher found he couldn't watch.

"It didn't seem to be to be necessarily the most sensitive thing to invite me to go and see," Jefferies has told Radio Times magazine. "There were 13 takes and because my arrest is done in the film exactly as it happened, I found it quite impossible to watch Jason in that scene."

Otherwise he says he was dispassionate watching Watkin's replay that traumatic episode in his life.

"Although I appear played by a character who looks remarkably like me, or who was made up to look remarkably like me, probably what comes across -– but obviously I am not the best person to judge – is that this is somebody who represents or caricatures certain aspects of me, exaggerated and separated, as it were, from the whole, in order to make the point Peter Morgan wanted to make.

"So, in a sense, I suppose the writer was using me and what happened to me to say something that he particularly wanted to say about British society."

Radio Times - full version in print magazine.

The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, ITV Wednesday December 10th.

The Ordeal Of Christopher Jefferies, excellent piece on this shameful episode and a rare in-depth interview with CJ, FT Weekend 2011. 

Update: Peter Morgan and Christopher Jefferies in The Guardian.

Mark Menzies: Like Leveson Never Happened

From today's Sun: Man had sex on drugs, quite enjoyed it bombshell!

It was quite like old times on the newsstands yesterday. Two Sunday red-tops took us back to the era of sleaze that bedevilled John Major's administration.

In other words, it was way before the nation, and the press, had heard of Lord Justice Leveson.

There was the News of the World - sorry, Sun on Sunday - with a splash headlined "Top Tory quits in rent boy scandal" plus, incidentally, an inside spread on "a blonde beauty" who "enjoyed internet sex chats with four Manchester United stars".

And there was the Sunday Mirror splashing on the same tale, "Tory MP quits in drugs & rent boy scandal". And this on the day when same-sex marriage laws came into force, duly celebrated on the paper's page 23.


The story concerned the resignation of Conservative MP Mark Menzies, parliamentary private secretary to the international development minister, Alan Duncan, after allegations made by a Brazilian male escort.

Both papers lay claim to exclusivity, but that little local dispute between the titles is far less interesting than the editorial agenda that convinced each of them of the story's importance.

You might have thought it inappropriate nowadays to expose people for their (alleged) gay relationships. You might have also thought it inappropriate to accept the word of someone who has sought payment for that (alleged) relationship. Doesn't the term "rent boy" seem oddly archaic in 2014?

You would probably concede that the (alleged) involvement of drugs just about gave it a public interest justification. But only just, given that the level of proof appears less than convincing.

I sincerely hope that this isn't the beginning of a trend.

Roy Greenslade, Guardian Media blog.

Quite, but this new trend surely began with the Christopher Jefferies and Paul Flowers witch hunts?

If you're gay, it's always hunting season, and you are the quarry.

Update: Two (2) more stories on this boring nonsense which affects no-one in The Sun today.

Christopher Jefferies: Now

The Independent.

An heroic man...

Christopher Jefferies: You Are The Quarry

In December 2010, Christopher Jefferies was arrested for the murder of landscape architect Jo Yeates and vilified by the press. Here, in his most personal and emotional account to date, he writes about the far-reaching impact of the episode, even after he was cleared.

BBC News magazine.

Listen to Christopher talk about his obscene vilification by the press - in collusion with the police - on Radio 4's A Life Less Ordinary tonight. 

Christopher Jefferies: So So Sorry

"The media attention and vilification to which Christopher Jefferies was subjected during the Joanna Yeates murder investigation was unprecedented, and I understand how difficult it must have been for him," he said. "It was a complex investigation, carried out under the most intense public scrutiny and the investigating officer had to pursue every reasonable line of inquiry.
"Although I was not chief constable then, I stand by the decision taken at the time to arrest and interview Christopher Jefferies.
"Nevertheless I am happy to accede to his request that we should make it clear that he was completely exonerated in this investigation.
"This is an unusual step to take but these were exceptional circumstances. I had a private meeting with Mr Jefferies on Friday and hope to use his experience to inform our serious crime investigations in the future."

From a letter to Chris Jefferies from Nick Gargan, chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police.

Jefferies was arrested in Jauary 2011 over the murder of Joanna Yeates - cue an orgy of disgusting smears and speculation in the media, which insinuated he was gay and - thus? - a "sexual pervert".
He won damages from eight newspapers, and The Mirror and The Sun were fined for contempt of court.
Chief constable Gargan also wrote; "While it is not normal practice to make such a public statement, in the circumstances of the exceptional media attention your arrest attracted, I acknowledge we should have considered this and I am very sorry for the suffering you experienced as a result."
He forgets to mention that the police were feeding "information" about Jefferies to the press. 

Leveson Inquiry: On Conclusion

Still trying to digest this*, but I've always thought the wisest words to the Leveson Inquiry were said by Ian Hislop.

"I do think that statutory regulation is not required. Most of the heinous crimes that came up and have made such a splash in front of this inquiry have already been illegal.
"Contempt of court is illegal, phone-tapping is illegal, policemen taking money is illegal. All of these things don't need a code, we already have laws for them.
"The fact that these laws were not rigorously enforced is again due to the failure of the police, the interaction of the police and News International - and let's be honest about this, the fact that our politicians have been very, very involved in ways that I think are not sensible with senior News International people."

After writing this blog about gay men and the media for two years, it's clear the main problem now with how the LGBT community is written about is how trans people are written about - it seems fine to set them up as figures of fear and ridicule, and regularly invade their privacy.
And as Hislop might point out, there are already laws against outing someone as trans.
So why not get newspapers to stick to them?
I want a free press, the problem is, as the Leveson Inquiry showed, we have a cruel and cavalier media seeing how much they can get away with.

* I'm not planning on reading the actual thing, obvs, it's 1.5m words, so don't write in.

Update: Christopher Jefferies - who was outed as a murder suspect to the media by police, and then smeared and libelled by the press, after he was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Jo Yates - has written an open letter about Leveson's findings; "There is a world of difference between statute that sets up an independent regulator and one that sought to regulate content, which no one is suggesting despite what the newspapers say."

Christopher Jefferies: A Gift To The Tabloids

"If you think back to end of 2010 and last year, the story was something of a gift to the tabloids. It was a readymade Midsomer Murders script set in a respectable and leafy suburb.

"I was the person who had been arrested and the press seemed determined to believe the person who was arrested was the murderer, and to portray me in as dark and as lurid a light as possible.

"Lo and behold you don't just have a sexual predator, but you have a bisexual predator and all sorts of fantastic rumours were latched on to that I would hold pupils' hands while reading poetry, obviously with sinister sexual motives.

"Journalists will talk to 100 people and if 99 say one thing and one says something they would like to believe or will enable them to write the story they want to write, that is the one they will choose to believe.
"The caricature for me was the lewd figure, a peeping tom, I had apparently spied on tenants, I was a loner because I happened to live alone. A lot of people said some nice things about me but they tended to be buried and not given enough prominence in the articles.

"To complete the character assassination it was alleged that I was fascinated by death, because I happened to have shown on a couple of occasions a particularly important documentary about the liberation of Auschwitz.

"Here you have me, this dark, macabre, sinister villain. And that certainly wasn't the whole of it."

Christopher Jefferies - who was falsely accused of Joanna Yeates' murder - speaking at the Benn Debate, Bristol Festival Of Ideas.*

The only tabloids to cover this were the Express and The Daily Star. 

The Sun and The Daily Mirror, who were both found guilty of contempt of court, have ignored it. 

Here's the Star's heartfelt apology to Jefferies for libelling him.

Jefferies suggested one way this could be prevented from happening in the future; "If we're to avoid statutory regulation then the new PCC must have sanctions at its disposal so severe that compliance to the highest possible standards must be compelled."

* Accounts of Jefferies' talk order the above paragraphs differently. 

Christopher Jefferies: J'Accuse

"It has become apparent that evidence put before the Leveson Inquiry confirms our earliest concerns about the confidentially with which the arrest and detention of our client was dealt with by those investigating the murder of Joanna Yeates.
"As a result of our attendance at the police station and of our reviewing of the material in the media, it became apparent that information had been deliberately leaked by as yet unidentified individuals in flagrant breach of their duty.
"Our client strongly believes this to be the case, as there was information within the public domain which was only known to those privy to the investigation material. Our client is of the view that this information had been leaked and we share that view.
"There needs to be an independent inquiry into this potentially criminal conduct on the part of officers from Avon and Somerset Police, as well as the Crown Prosecution Service.
"As regards any legal action against Avon and Somerset Police for wrongful arrest, this is a matter which remains under review."

Statement released by Christopher Jefferies' solicitors, The Stokoe Partnership.
Daily Mirror editor, Richard Wallace, today told the Leveson Inquiry his judgement was affected by off-the-record briefings by Avon And Somerset Police where they had appeared confident Jefferies "was their man" in the Joanna Yeates' murder case.
Oops!

Update: Here's the Mirror's lightly edited account of the above.

Update 2: "The Sun has withdrawn a Supreme Court appeal against its contempt of court fine over its Chris Jefferies coverage but tabloid rival the Daily Mirror is pushing ahead with its challenge." Press Gazette January 27th.

On Stuart Walker and Christopher Jefferies: Shame

Yesterday Vincent Tabak was convicted of the murder of Joanna Yeates.
If we still did have hanging Christopher Jefferies could have swung for it.
Because most of the tabloids decided Mr Jefferies killed Jo last Christmas.
The only "evidence" they had was that some people thought he was "strange" and probably gay.
Case closed!
Here is Chris talking about his ordeal on Sky News - apparently he got a six-figure sum off their sister paper, The Sun, for defamation.
Yesterday an 18 year-old man, Ryan Esquierdo, was charged with the murder of Stuart Walker.
The Scottish press have intimated Stuart was killed by "a secret lover".
That's odd - last weekend the press said they thought he was the victim of an anti-gay hate crime.
This was then sent round the world as fact via Twitter.
During the week some papers hinted he may have been killed in a vigilante attack because he was a suspected child molester.
Of course, they can't all be right.
At the time of writing we do not know who killed Stuart Walker or why.
I hope the press and the public will not rush to judge in this case - for Chris's, and for Stuart's, and for all of our sake.

Chris Jefferies: Breaking/Brilliant News!

"Chris Jefferies, the landlord of murdered Joanna Yeates, has won substantial libel damages and a public apology over newspaper reports connecting him with her death."

Sky News.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Apparently it's eight newspapers - some pictured above.
I think this is more shaming than hackgate.
I hope you took the fuckers to the cleaners, Chris.

x

Press Ethics: Uncommon To All Papers

Nice to see all the (non-Murdoch) papers frothing at the mouth over the latest revelations in the phone-hacking scandal.
Good to see this coincides with the "contempt of court" proceedings at the High Court over tabloid coverage of the Jo Yeates murder and their shameful framing of Mr Christopher Jefferies.
As you can see above, all the tabloids acted like angels.

• And good to see Chris Bryant MP calling for and getting an Emergency Debate on The News Of The World and phone-hacking. We shall have our revenge!