Guess what...More tabloid lies!

The Express newspapers pay libel damages over Rhys Jones claim

The killing of 11-year-old Rhys Jones was already brutal and depressing as it was. It revealed yet another gangland tale centred around one scumbag called Sean Mercer. There really was no need to fabricate stuff.

Yet this is what the Express group did. It's today's news that Kelly Marshall, 18, from Liverpool, won "substantial" damages after the Daily Star (owned by the Express group, at once proud proprietors of a semi-pornographic rag and the right-wing moral gazette Daily Express) published a front page story claiming Miss Marshall was Mercer's girlfriend and she had hailed him a 'hero'.

It was totally false, as it turned out. Miss Marshall's solicitor said that her client "did not make any public statement, did not regard Mercer as a hero and would certainly never have made such a claim or sought publicity for it in the aftermath of his conviction for such an appalling murder". Miss Marshall also decided to "donate the sum to the memorial trust set up in memory of Rhys".

The Express newspapers apologised and agreed to pay the damages. Last December, the story was also reprised by the Daily Mail. The link to the article 'Girlfriend of Rhys's murderer Sean Mercer says: 'He's a hero and a lovely lad' is still available from this Daily Mail page, but the article itself has been obviously removed.

The British tabloids: what an absolute joke.