Gillick sues charity over pregnancy leaflet

A morality campaigner, who has 10 children, claimed in the High Court yesterday that she had been libelled by the Brook Advisory Centre, which gives contraceptive advice.

Victoria Gillick, a former pregnancy counsellor from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, campaigned in the Eighties for doctors to be compelled to tell parents if they prescribed contraceptives to underage girls.

Yesterday Mrs Gillick told Mr Justice Gray that a fact sheet published by the charity accused her of being "morally responsible" for an increase in teenage pregnancies. The leaflet claimed a 23 per cent rise in teenage pregnancies in the Eighties was partly due to her attempts to stop under-16s being given contraception without parental consent.

Mrs Gillick claimed readers would not realise her campaign was concerned with the confidentiality of advice to under-16s. But lawyers for the Brook Advisory Centre argued the words complained about did not carry the alleged meaning.

The judge said he would deliver his judgment next week after considering the meaning of the words.