Mail on Sunday apologises and pays substantial damages as long-running ‘statins claim’ ends

The Mail on Sunday and its health editor Barney Calman have apologised and paid damages to academic Zoe Harcombe PhD and medical doctor Malcolm Kendrick for the publication of articles in 2019 that accused them of  knowingly making false statements about cholesterol-lowering drugs statins, thereby causing a large number of people not to take statins and putting their health at risk.

The articles, which included the headlines “Deadly Propaganda of the Statin Deniers” and “There is a special place in hell for the doctors who claim statins don’t work” were the subject of a preliminary trial in 2023.  In a judgment handed down on 25 June 2024 (Harcombe & Anor v Associated Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2024] EWHC 1523 (KB)), Mr Justice Nicklin determined that neither a public interest defence under section 4 of the Defamation Act 2013 nor the qualified privilege 'reporting' defence under section 15 of the Defamation Act 1996 were made out.

At a hearing on 5 December 2024, the Claimants' solicitors read a unilateral statement in open court, indicating that following Nicklin J's decision, the case had been settled with the Defendants apologising, undertaking not to repeat the allegations, and agreeing to pay the Claimants substantial damages and their legal costs.  It was reported that in making the apology, the Defendants had accepted that the allegations were untrue and ought not to have been published

The full statement in open court can be found here.

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