This is the original submission I made to Leveson

 generalenquiries@levesoninquiry.org.uk

25 November 2011

Dear Lord Leveson,

I submit examples of misbehaviour by the media and the PCC plus collusion between the police and the media . In every case I was the person who was directly affected by the behaviour. For each case I enclose supporting documents which strongly support my accusation.

I wish to give testimony in person before your inquiry.

The examples of misbehaviour are:

1. The illicit receipt of information supplied by the police to the Daily Mirror

On 15 March 1997 the Daily Mirror ran a hideously libellous story about me which contained numerous serious inaccuracies. I made a complaint to the PCC. As part of their investigation the PCC sent me a copy of a letter sent to them by the then Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

In it he admits receiving information from the police , viz.: “ The police source of our article (whose identity we have a moral obligation to protect) gave us the detail of the letters that we then published.” This can only have been illegal because there would be no need to protect the police source if the information had been given legitimately.

A copy of Morgan’s letter is in the attached Word file PCC Piers Morgan letter.docx . I have also placed a second copy beneath it with my remarks on Morgan’s comments interpolated within his text - see the square bracket contained text marked RH. A hard copy of Morgan’s letter will be sent to you.

2. The failure of Scotland Yard to meaningfully investigate the supply of illicit information to the Mirror

I referred Morgan’s letter to Kentish Town police with a request that they investigate the selling of information to the Mirror. A copy of the letter is contained within the Word file Mirror Police source complaint.docx The case was referred to Scotland Yard. There it was supposedly investigated by Det Supt Ian Curtis. In fact, no meaningful investigation was undertaken because Curtis admitted to me in a telephone conversation that no one at the Mirror was interviewed, not Morgan, not the author of the piece Jeff Edwards, the Mirror’s chief crime reporter.

3. The failure of the PCC

I made complaints to the PCC about the Mirror’s libel of me and their refusal to either make a retraction or allow me any opportunity to reply. The PCC refused to come to a determination citing article 53.5 of the PCC’s MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION which states “The Commission shall not consider a complaint which it believes to be frivolous or which it believes to be inappropriate to entertain or proceed with for any other reason”. In other words, they can get rid of any complaint simply by saying they do not like it.

Mike Jempson, the director of what was then Presswise (now Mediawise] a charity set up to help victims of the press, sent them several stinging letters about their refusal .

Copies of the correspondence between Mike Jempson and the PCC are contained in the attached Word file PCC Mike Jempson.docx. Hard copies of the letters will be sent to you.

4 The Mirror’s Behaviour

Copies of the Mirror story and that of its sister paper the Daily Herald are contained within the attached Word file Daily Mirror and Daily Record stories.docx. Hard copies of the stories will be sent to you.

Both stories had a series of grotesque libels of me. As you will see from Morgan’s letter to the PCC, the Mirror admit they do not have letters from me to the Blairs. Hence, they had no ground whatsoever for believing the libels to be true.

My unpublished response to the Mirror story “Moral Simpletons target innocent man” was written soon after the story’s publication and covers in depth the libels and inaccuracies contained within the story. A copy is contained within Word file Moral Simpletons.docx.

Mike Jempson saw my letters to the Blairs and concluded that although robust there was absolutely nothing to support the Mirror’s description of me as a crude, foul-mouthed and dangerous racist . In addition, the Conservative MP Sir Richard Body had sight of the letters and afterwards put down this Early Day Motion in the Commons, viz.:

10 November 1999

CONDUCT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MEMBER FOR SEDGEFIELD 10:11:99

Sir Richard Body

That this House regrets that the Right honourable Member for Sedgefield [Tony Blair] attempted to persuade the Metropolitan Police to bring criminal charges against Robert Henderson, concerning the Right honourable Member’s complaints to the police of an offence against the person, malicious letters and racial insult arising from letters Robert Henderson had written to the Right honourable Member complaining about various instances of publicly-reported racism involving the Labour Party; and that, after the Crown Prosecution Service rejected the complaints of the Right honourable Member and the Right honourable Member failed to take any civil action against Robert Henderson, Special Branch were employed to spy upon Robert Henderson, notwithstanding that Robert Henderson had been officially cleared of any illegal action.

This motion is now part of the official House of Commons record – see  http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=16305&SESSION=702

The effect of the Mirror story

I was unable to gain any redress from the Mirror, the PCC or the police. Following the publication of the Mirror story I became the subject to harassment which included people posting my name, address and phone number on social websites and inciting people to attack me.

This was on top of the unrequited media abuse I received after the publication of my article in Wisden Cricket Monthly “Is it in the blood?” in July 1995. This resulted in dozens of stories in the press totalling thousands of words to which I was denied any reply whatsoever, including by WCM who failed in the first obligation of as publisher to defend that which they publish.

In short, I was both grotesquely abused by the press and failed by every body which supposedly exists to give redress for press misbehaviour.

Please acknowledge receipt of this email.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson


The Leveson Inquiry report was published on 29th November. The executive summary is at  http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1213/hc07/0779/0779.asp

The full Report is at  http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1213/hc07/0780/0780.asp

I have become a non-person in Leveson World. There is a long list of those making submissions to the Inquiry .

Leveson’s report contains a long list of the names of those who made submissions – see –  http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1213/hc07/0780/0780_iv.pdf page 1839 volume IV. My name is not in the list.

Not content with refusing to allow me to appear as a core participant or an ordinary witness, Leveson has deliberately excluded any evidence that I made submissions. It would be interesting to know if any other people who made submissions have had their names omitted.

Such an omission is most irregular. Where submissions are solicited by an official inquiry, the submissions, or at least a note of who has made submissions, are routinely included in an appendix to the report.

Why is Leveson so determined not to have my submission to his Inquiry suppressed? Amongst other things I provided him with

1. A letter from Piers Morgan to the PCC when he was Daily Mirror editor admitting that he had received in formation from the police in circumstances which can only have been have been illegal.

2. Evidence that Morgan and his one-time Mirror chief crime reporter Jeff Edwards had committed perjury under oath before the Inquiry .

3. Evidence that the police conducted an “ investigation” in the Morgan letter to the PCC without questioning Morgan or anyone else at the Mirror.

4. The abject failure of the PCC to address my complaints of the most serious libels against me.

5. Huge evidence of press abuse of me.