Never in the history of man-kind has so much time or money been wasted on something so painfully irrelevant and petty. Well done to the police, politicians and press.
I think you'll find they all had something to do with bringing it, and keeping it in the news for such a long time. Mitchel is a prize idiot for thinking he'd win the libel case (balance or probability etc) and he's now severely out of pocket as a result. I guess a pride (ego) that size is hard to swallow.
Post downvoted. **** Mitchell had no choice. He had to make a show of denying the accusation or say goodbye forever to his political career. He'll make the money back easily enough, politicians cough*weasels*cough usually do.
Not by the police, the judge said the officer was an old fashioned cop and didn't have the "wit" to make it up.
I saw that. Funny, i thought. I'm glad he has been hoisted with his own petard. I doubt that PCs spend their time inventing dialogue for cabinet ministers and apparently there were plenty of witnesses.
Nice to know he's passing judgement on people's aptitude to lie on the basis of his evidence and a few questions. It may be that he's that good a liar that he's able to persuade people he's not got the wit.
How the hell did this ridiculous spat between a bunch of overgrown little boys ever get this far, and how the hell did any of those involved ever come to be employed at public expense? No wonder the county's up shit creek if this is a representative sample of public servants.
"Mr Justice Mitting called the Tory MP's behaviour "childish" and said he found the MP's version of events inconsistent with CCTV footage of the row with PC Toby Rowland in Downing Street in 2012. Mr Mitchell, who may face costs of £2m, said he was "bitterly disappointed". PC Rowland said he and his family had been through "indescribable pain". "I am delighted to hear again my innocence, my reputation and my integrity as a police officer has been recognised. I hope now that a line can be drawn and everyone can be left in peace," he added." No public expense here mate........
What about the wages of the police whilst they were in court? The court staff? There's expense everywhere
Love the comments of the judge re the copper kind of reminded me of a Friday night in here and Pete and Andy going at it. Typical arrogance of the 'educated elite' towards those of a lower social class in fact you could almost say the judge was calling the cop a pleb by default.
The "costs" referred to are the costs of the parties on both sides, not the costs of the court. In civil cases, the court fees charged do not come anywhere near covering the cost of a courtroom and court staff etc for a major trial, let alone the time of a senior judge. But that is beside the point. Thousands of cases are commenced, and all fees paid, but the vast majority of cases are settled without a trial, or only a very short trial. The small proportion of cases which are fought out all the way are largely paid for by the fees in the large proportion of cases which settle. Overall civil justice is largely self-financing, except for judges' salaries.
