Elton John wins pounds 350,000 for libel: Punitive damages awarded against 'Sunday Mirror' over false claims about diet

THE POP star, Elton John, was awarded pounds 350,000 libel damages against the Sunday Mirror yesterday over false allegations that he suffered from a bizarre eating disorder that caused him to spit out the food he was eating.

The jury indicated that pounds 275,000 of the award was to punish the newspaper for publishing an untrue story. George Carman QC, acting for the singer, had told them they were entitled to 'wipe the smile off the faces' of the board of directors at Mirror Group Newspapers.

The judge, Mr Justice Drake, had asked the jury to keep a sense of proportion in assessing damages and resist the temptation to put 'a nought or two on the end'.

After the award was made, Mr John, 46, who refused to speak to reporters before signing some autographs for fans, said: 'They printed a story which wasn't earth-shattering but it wasn't true. I would have accepted an apology much earlier if they had accepted it was fiction.'

He said he intended to give part of the award to charity. The Sunday Mirror was also ordered to pay costs estimated at pounds 200,000.

Colin Myler, the paper's editor, said the damages were 'excessive' and that it would be appealing. 'When you consider that a person who loses an eye receives in the region of pounds 20,000 compensation, it helps to put this case into perspective,' he said.

The story, published on 27 December last year, was headlined 'Elton's Diet of Death' and 'Secret of Slim Elton's Spitting Image'. It quoted the star at a party in Hollywood thrown by his friend and manager, John Reid, as telling guests about his new 'diet' and said the singer was observed chewing party snacks then spitting them out into a napkin.

The Sunday Mirror later admitted that the singer had not even attended the party. The singer said he was infuriated by the implication that he was a sham and a failure because he had fought and won a difficult personal battle against bulimia. He subsequently devoted time publicly to warning other people about it.

Lord Williams QC, counsel for Mirror Group Newspapers, had argued that the article, though inaccurate, was not libellous. People would think none the worse of Elton John after reading it, he said.

Lord Williams said that the Sunday Mirror had offered to apologise and pay damages. Quoting one of Elton John's songs, 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word', he said: 'It wasn't the hardest word for the Mirror and they said it a long time ago.'

Mr John's award yesterday is the eighth-largest libel settlement in British legal history. He is already at number two in the libel top 10 after he received pounds 1m from the Sun in 1988 over allegations about his private life. The highest award of pounds 1.5m was given to Lord Aldington over false allegations made by Count Nikolai Tolstoy over the deaths of Cossacks in 1945.