Whistle case settled out of court

The statement reads –

West Ham United plc is pleased to announce that it has settled the case against Barrie Abrahams, one of the three members of the Whistle group against whom the company was forced to bring defamation proceedings in May 2004.

Barrie Abrahams’ statement including an apology is reproduced in full below:

“In April 2004, a group calling itself “Whistle” published a news release and open letter addressed to Terence Brown, Chairman of West Ham United Football Club plc which owns West Ham United Football Club.

West Ham United issued defamation proceedings against me and two other members of Whistle, Mr Mike Hanna and Mr David Bick, on 10th May 2004 in respect of statements made in the news release and open letter.

I have now confirmed the following to West Ham United:

1. I was not an author (or editor) of the news release and open letter;
2. I was not responsible for the publication of the news release and open letter;
3. I received legal advice prior to their publication to the effect that some of the statements made in the news release and open letter might well be defamatory and therefore made it expressly clear that the news release and open letter must not be published in their current form.

I have been advised that West Ham United’s motivation for taking action in respect of the news release and the open letter was to seek redress against those it considered to be propagating untruthful and damaging statements about it and to obtain protection against this happening again in the future.

In my Defence (filed in October 2004) I stated for the first time that I was not responsible for publication or authorship of the open letter and news release. Unfortunately, I did not formally clarify my position in relation to the published statements until 28th February 2005. Upon receipt of this clarification, West Ham United has agreed not to pursue any further claim against me in respect of the statements made. I apologise for not making my position clear from the outset and have made a contribution towards the costs that have been wasted as a result of this.”

West Ham United is pleased that this matter has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. As reported here on 29 November 2004, David Bick, one of the other defendants, has already issued an apology and correction for the statements which were the subject of the defamation proceedings and paid West Ham United substantial damages and a contribution to legal costs.