I think we're appealing, certainly.

No.

I don't accept that, no, because as I say, we went to a number of different sources on Mr Jefferies and everything that we heard seemed to gel with the picture painted in that article, that he was a very eccentric, highly intelligent character, and that is why the ...

No, I wouldn't say that at all. There's a pressure on you, as a reporter, to deliver and furnish the content desk with all the relevant facts and all the stories of the day, all the best information that's around and that's a part of a ...

Yes. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't know that.

Yes.

None that jump to mind, I have to say, but I don't have any involvement with those decisions. I mean, that's certainly something for the content desk and the executives of the newspaper.

Yes, I see that. Again, that wasn't a word that I would have put into my copy.

Yes.

Yes, I would.

The story is built on what I felt was a true reflection of Mr Jefferies' character. I mean, the article on the 31st was intended to be a background article into Mr Jefferies as a man, taking in several different sources, and if he came across as an oddball, as ...

I imagine I will have gone through that thought process, but as I say, we only have limited words on the page and we have to edit down substantial quotes like that to pick out the ones that we feel are the most relevant, and the fact that we used ...

Yes, I would agree with that, but that was one of many emails we received on Mr Jefferies. I did try to get a flavour from all the correspondence and all the sources that we dealt with into all the articles.

Yes, I feel we definitely did bear in mind that this article wasn't the background article of the previous day. This was mainly focused on developments in the investigation, so obviously we're constrained when it comes to space of how many words we can get in there, but ...

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

This is part of the copy for -- yes, it was.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, some of the anecdotes were from many years previously, but there were some quotes from neighbours who obviously knew him very recently.

Yes, I do see that, but I was trying to present a true reflection of this man's character, and having gathered information from many different sources, past and present, in the life of Mr Jefferies, this was the picture that was painted.

We have, in the third column along:

"He was very positive and pastoral in school."

In the final column, a former master was quoted as saying:

"He was dedicated in his job, strongly academic and deeply involved. He was respected and his students used to get good results."

And then ...

I agree, but if you're going to aggregate those, I'm point out a few of the positive lines.

Sure, absolutely, but, I mean, what can we do as an industry? As a reporter, as a journalist, I am happy with the way I conducted myself on this particular story. I tried to present as balanced an article as possible and the decisions that are made at an editorial ...

I accept that, but I think you'll find that this particular story was perhaps, you know, a watershed moment for the industry. It wasn't -- an eye opener. It wasn't just the Daily Mirror. It was a number of newspapers who fell foul of this.

Well, obviously hindsight's a wonderful thing, and looking back, we -- everybody at the Daily Mirror is very regretful of the coverage and we do apologise to Mr Jefferies for vilifying him in such a way, but you have to understand at the time it was such a high profile ...

Yes.

No.

No.

Yes.

Yes. Although, as indicated in my statement of claim, I did have a minor role in some of the quotes towards the end of that article.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I accept that there is a tension, but the argument for that would be not all negative information would prejudice a fair trial, and in compiling this article, the aim was to be as balanced as possible, while providing our readers with a full and in-depth view of the ...

Yes. Of course, I was fully aware that proceedings were active once an arrest has been made, but ultimately my role was to -- it was to compile a background article on Mr Jefferies, as would be normal practice with any murder investigation.

Personally I did not receive any briefings in relation to Mr Jefferies. We were in constant contact with the police press office. We did attend the press conferences at the Avon and Somerset police hours, where we were given guidance and briefings as to how the investigation was progressing, yes.

Thank you.

As a result of the story, the government appointed Dame Butler-Sloss to head up a security review and that review concluded Her Majesty was at risk and they appointed Brigadier Jeffrey Cook as the head of security to oversee vetting procedures. So I think that's a clear indication of ...

Well, of course, but on the same front I could have been in a training camp in Afghanistan for the past four years rather than working for the Daily Mirror.

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, there was very much a security scandal there. The vetting procedures were shameful, actually. There was just one woman in a personnel office. They did very cursory checks, other than a CRB check. They didn't check into my background whatsoever. They didn't check who ...

Yes.

Yes.

They were mainly in connection with the Buckingham Palace intruder story in 2003. There were a couple of British Press Awards: scoop of the year and the Hugh Cudlipp award for excellence in tabloid journalism, and there was a What The Papers Say scoop of the year and the London ...

Yes.

It is.

It's Ryan Lee Parry.