Witness Statement of Christopher Jefferies

8/3/2019 Witness Statement of Christopher Jefferies

1/16

For Distr ibut ion To CP s

The Le veson Inqui ry

Witness Statement for Part 1 , Module 1

W IT NESS ST AT EMENT OF CHRIST OPHER JEF F ERIES

I , Christopher Jefferies, c/o Col lyer Bristow LLP , 4 Bedford Ro w, Londo n, WC 1R 4D F wi f l sayas fo l lows:

Background3.

I make this statement in connect ion wi th my role as aCo re Part ic ipant in the Leveso n Inquiry.For the purpose s of this stateme nt, I refer to a sm al lpaginated bundle of docum ents marked "C Jl" . W here Irefer to page num bers in this statemen t, I am referr ing topages in "C J l".

I am 66. I live in Bristol . I am a retr ied schoolm aster. Myprofessional career spanned som e 34 years, inc ludingteaching E ngl ish l iterature at C l if ton Co l lege in Bristolbetween 1967 and 2001.I own 3 flats within one building in Bristol. I l ive in one flatand ren t the remaining 2 f lats to tenants.Prior to Decem ber 2010 I had not had an y deal ings at allwi th the me dia. Howev er, I was sudden ly thrust into theme dia spot l ight because I was the landlord to JoannaYeates, the gi r l who disappea red from he r f lat on theweekend of 17 December 2010 and whose body wassubsequen t ly discovered on the o utski rts of Bristol onCh ristma s Day 20 10. In part icular, I becam e the subjectof intense m edia interest when t was arrested on 30December 2010 by Avon and Somerset Pol ice on

Documentsreferred to

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suspic ion of her murde r. Although I wa s ent i rely innocentof any wrongdoing, as has s ince been proved, thetreatment I received at the han ds of the press hassignificantly affected m y l i fe.

Joanna Y ea t es m u rde r and m y a r res t6. As I have sa id , Ms Yeates wen t miss ing on Fr iday 17

Decem ber 2010. She was reported to the Pol ice asmiss ing on Sunday 19 December 2010. Her body wasfound on C hr is tmas Da y at the edge o f a quarry threem i les from w here I l ive. She had be en strangled.

7. Fol lowing this, I voluntarily agreed to assist the P ol ice byproviding them wi th two statements.

8. However , on Thursday 30 December 2010 1 w asarres ted by A von and Som erset Pol ice on suspic ion ofmurd er. The c i rcumstance s of the arrest remain viv idlyin my mind.

9. I was wo ken by the Pol ice just af ter 7am; I heard a knockat the door o f my f lat and a voice saying, It s the Po l ice,Mr Jefferies. We n eed yo ur help", Of course, I let thePol ice in, but rather than this just being som e en quiry, Iwas imm ediately arrested.

1 0 . My arrest cam e as a bol t f rom the blue. When I f i rs theard the kn ock, my f irst thought was that i t was aneighbour who was unw el l and hav ing some k ind ofemergency. I had no idea whatsoever that I might evenbe considered a suspe ct, s ince there wa snt a shred ofevidence to that ef fect.

1 1 . I do no t ow n a T Vand do not regular ly read thenewspapers and so I had not been fo l lowing theprogress of the invest igat ion into M s Yea tes murder. Ithink this added to the fact that it was such a shock whenthe Pol ice knocked on m y door.

12 . I was taken into custody an d quest ioned by the P ol ice forthree days, during w hich t ime I w as ent i rely cut of f fromthe wo rld to al l intents and purposes. Final ly , on 1January, I was re leased on bai l pending furtherinvest igations. Fol low ing my release , I went to stay w i thfr iends a s I could not return to m y hom e. In that time, t


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had s imply no idea whatsoever about the media furorewhich had occurred and the w ay in which, as it has beendescribed, I w as so vi li fied in the tabloid press. I wi l lexp la in in these paragraphs w hat I unders tand happenedal though, as is c lear, I was unaw are of i t at the t ime .

Press coverage13. The problem started the day before I was arrested. As ~

wa s leaving the house to go shopping, I was sudden lyaccosted by a numbe r of reporters wi th televis ioncameras and photographic cameras who sought toquest ion me about speci f ic aspects o f the voluntarystateme nts I had provided to the Po l ice. I reme mbe rbeing extreme ly irr itated at the t ime and sh ocked thatthey seem ed to know what I had to ld the Pol ice. I st i ll donot know how the press found ou t what I had sa id in m ystatements to the P ol ice.

14 . The w orst of the report ing of me started on Friday 31Decem ber 2010, the day after my arrest, and cont inuedthroughout the t ime I w as in Pol ice custody. As I w i llrefer to below, the report ing was so ho st ile that i t led tomy criminal sol ic itor, Bambo s T siattalou of StokoePartnership, writ ing letters to several editors warningthem to stop publ ishing defam atory material about me.This did not seem to work.

15 . At the same t ime, the Attorney General , Dominic Grieve,was also forced to issue a publ ic statemen t warningnewsp aper edi tors to com ply wi th the Contem pt of CourtAct 1981. Again, despi te this, the new spape rs cont inuedtheir campaign.

16 . As I have said, I was bl issfully unaware o f th is atthet ime . The reason is that, whi ls t I was in custody, mysol ic itor spared m e the ord eal of tel ling me about thepapers and so I had no idea what the press waspubl ishing about me .

17 . In fact, I rem ained obl iv ious of the e xtraordinary me diabehaviour unt i ] the da y after I was release d. Even then, Iwas told by fr iends and as sociates that it would bedistressing for me to read the coverage a nd so I m ade


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the conscious de cis ion no t to read a ny of the art ic les.


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I t was only w hen I bl i thely proposed that I might headinto town to buy som e clothes and toi letries that myfr iends told m e the fu l l extent of wha t had been going onand that I should not go out for fear of being recognised.Even m y sol ic i tor was so concerne d about my propo salto go out in publ ic that he rang m e to say tha t i f myfr iends couldn t persuade m e not to go out he wouldcome d own from Lon don to dissuade me himsel f . I t wasonly then that I began to comprehend the sca le o f w hathad happened.I can see no w that, fol lowing m y arrest, the nat ionalmed ia shamelessly vi li fied me. The UK press set aboutwh at can only be des cribed as a wi tch-hunt. It was c learthat the tabloid press had d ecided that I wa s gui l ty of MsYeates murder and seemed determined to persuade thepubl ic of my gui lt . They e mba rked on a frenziedcam paign to blacken my character by publ ishing a seriesof very serious allegat ions about m e which w erecomplete ly untrue, a~legations which were a mixture ofsmea r, innuendo and com plete f ic t ion.I have be en told by fr iends and fami ly that whi le I was incustody extraordinary efforts were m ade by the m edia tocontac t anyone who m ay have had any knowledge aboutme, including fr iends from schoo ldays whom I had notseen for some considerable t ime, and forme r pupi ls.The tabloid press undertook what w as qui te s imp lygratui tous d ir t-d iggingIn addi t ion to any a l legat ions ma de in conne ct ion wi thMs Y eates murder, over the 3 days after m y arrest, thetabloid press essent ially portrayed me as a sexual lyperver ted voyeur who used teaching as a m eans offeeding my pe rversions and that I had a mal ign influenceover any p upi ls I cam e into contact wi th. Amongst. otherhighly defam atory al legat ions, the art ic tes a lsosuggested I had been involved in a previous murd er andthat l was l inked to a con victed paedophi le. Al l of th is

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was comp letely false.


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The tabtoids publ ished a series of photographs of mewhich m eant I was instant ly recognisable by the publ ic.The y also reported o n al l aspects of m y l ife - f rom detai lsabout m y late mother - to the propert ies I own - to m yconduc t as a landlord - to detai ls about my professionalcareer. Almost al l the information p ubl ished was false,inaccurate or exag gerated; the art ic les con tained thewildest f l ights of fantasy.Even i f what wa s wri t ten about m y private andprofessional l ife had bee n true, there could have been nopubl ic interest served by i t being publ ished and certainlynot in the hugely sensational and dama ging way that i twas.] attach copies of the eight worst offending articles:

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1. The S trange Mr Jefferies, The Sun, 31 De cem ber2010;2. Murder Po l ice Q uiz Nutty Professo r wi th a BlueRinse, Wa s Jos Body Hidden. Next to Her Flat? , TheDai ly M ai l, 31 Decem ber 2010;3. The Strange M r Jefferies, Cree py , Dai ly Re cord, 31December 2010;4. Jo Su spect is Peep ing Tom , Dai ly Mirror, 31December 2010;5. Joanna suspect Ex-teacher known as Mr Chips , Dai lyExpress, 31 Decem ber 20106. Jo Su spect, scared k ids - Obsesse d by de ath , TheSun, 1 January 2011;7. Was Kil ler Waiting in Jos flat?, Daily Mirror, 1January 2011;8. A Be aut i fu l Wom an in Mind, Bo dy and S out..I wi llAfwa ys Love H er...Boyfr iends Tribute to Jo as Landlordis Bai led, The Sunday Mirror, 2 January 20 11.Ult imately, I brought legal proceedings for l ibel against 8new spape rs in relat ion to al legat ions contained in 40art ic les. I was successful in obtain ing damag es, costs

Page 1 to 26

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and apologies from al l eight t i tles.


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W hilst these eight art ic les provide a n overview of thetru ly horrendo us nature of the coverage of my arrest bythe tablo id papers, I sued in respect of only a hand ful ofthe wo rst offending art ic les and al legations. The ge neralpress coverage w as appa l ling.I set out below a selection of extracts from these articles:

The Sun, 31 Decem ber 2010:

"This is the Joanna Yeates m urder suspect. ChrisJeffer ies - s port ing the wispy b lue-r inse h airdo thatsaw h im branded "strange" by school pupi ls hetaught"

"WE IRD, strange talk, strange w alk, POS H, lovedcul ture, poetry , LEW D, made sexual remarks ,CR EEP Y, loner w i th blue r inse hair."

"Former students c laimed yesterday that the blue-rinse, long-haired bachelor, wh o po l ice arrestedyesterday, used to make s leazy comm ents andinvite them to his hom e. One recal led: "He was veryf lam boyant. We were convinced he wa s gay". "Youdidnt want h im to come near you. He was veryunkem pt and had di rty f ingernai ls. He w asweird... He was a stickler for discipl ine and verytradi tional. He u sed to get very an gry and throwbooks and pe ns across the room. He kept repeat ingwords in an odd way."

"A second student said "He w as fascinated bymaking lewd sexual remarks, t t was real lydisturbing".

5. "Another studen t told how groups of up to ten pupi lswere inv ited to Je ffer ies hom e... "My p arents d idnt

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know I went. The conversat ion didn t exact ly stick tothe curr iculum. He w as eccentr ic , odd and co uld bedescribed as a loner. We thought i t odd that a manof his age didn t have a wi fe and ha d blue-rinsehair."


"Landlord C hris Jefferies knew Jo Yea tes boyfr iendwas go ing away fo r the weekend - and had a key tothe couples flat, neighbours said yesterday.Jefferies even he lped Greg R eardon start hisbroken-down car so he could drive to stay wi th hisbrother in Sheff ie ld on the night JoDisappeared.. .Another neighbou r said:" He had akey and knew the boy f riend was go ing to be away inYorkshire."

7. "Mr Jefferies was a lso famous for his utter dis l ike ofsports."

8. "Neighbours looked on J effer ies as a nu ttyprofessor."

9. "Another ne ighbour described Jefferies as "adom inant character". He sa id: "He was un usual inthat hai r was al l over the place. He was ve ry posh, asol i tary f igure and v ery cuftured, t wouldn t used theword p opular to describe him." Fami ly friends of onlychi ld Jefferies described him as "effem inate" as ayoungster."

10. "Jeffer ies bought a f lat in the block w here 25 yearold Jo l ived from a pa edop hi le wh o was jai led forent ic ing a youn g boy there for sex, i t em erged lastnight. Fel low teacher Stephen Johnston used theground f loor f lat to groom the pupi l for three years.Jefferies bo ught i t in 1999."

The D ai ly Mi r ror , 31 Decem ber 2010:

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11. "Jo suspect is a peep ing Tom".


12 . "We caught him looking in the windows m anyt ime s.., he wa s strange, always hanging abo ut".

1 3 . "The ecce ntr ic landlord arrested yesterday onsuspic ion of Jo Yeates murder used to peerintrusively into his f lats, two ex tena nts saidyesterday...The co uple also c laimed n osey C hrisJefferies, 65 , refused to let them put up net curtainsto protect their pr ivacy.. .The husband said: "Hema de m y wi fe feel very uncom fortable". I t emergedyesterday e x-teacher Jefferies bought the Bristol flatJo rented from an old co l league who is in jai l forchi ld abuse. The Pol ice may now re-open thenearby un solved 1974 k i ll ing of G lenis Carruthers".

14. "Chris is a snob really and a bit el i t ist."

The D ai ly Record, 31 Decem ber 2010:

15 . "The S trange Mr Jefferies", "Creepy ", "Land lordarrested over Jo murder made lewd sexual remarks,say k ids he taught at col lege...They c laimed heconstant ly made lewd sexual remarks as heclutched the han ds of pup i ls."

1 6 . "Jo landlord was s inister peeping Tom , saystenants. ..They revealed he w ould constantly peerthrough the windows- and even let h imsel f intotheir f ia t using his ow n keys ... On several occasionshe even en tered our f lat unannoun ced. I twasalways when I was at work and my w i fe was athome . "She wou ld hear the font door go and hewou ld walk in. He always acted surprised and lef twhen she confronted him".

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The D ai ly M ai l, 31 Decem ber 2010:


17. "The teacher they cal led Mr Strange".

18 , "Described as a nutty professo#, the bachelor usedto dye his hai r blue and h as an obsession w i thChristiana Rossett i, a 19~h-century poet who oftenwrote about death."

19. "Links to unsolved m urder yards aw ay".

The Express, 31 December 2010:

20. "Mr Jefferies, a bache lor who l ives alone, is a forme rteacher at ne arby Cl i f ton C ol lege, a 9,000-a-termpublic sch ool .... I t is bel ieved he ow ns severalpropert ies including one in France".21. " .. ."He use d to touch pe oples hands and h ed say:Oh, youre very swe aty. That mean s youve beensexual ly act ive recent ly."

22 . "... He w as weird. He wo uld over-emphasise wo rdsand repeat then 10 to 15 t imes oveP .

The Sun, 1 January 2011:

23. "An ex-pupi l of Joanna Yeates murder suspectChris Jef feries yesterday cla imed h e was ob sessedwith death. The form er student said eccentr icEnglish teacher Jef fer ies made them watch f i lmsabout Nazi death camps - and scared somechi ldren wi th his m acabre fascination."

24 . "A former acquaintance of Jo Yeates murdersuspect C hris Jefferies told last night how she fel tshe w as being fol lowed by the ret ired schoolmaster.The blonde in her 30s, c laimed the wi ld-haired

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eccentr ic watcher her as she studied and q uizzedher about her personal l ife.~


25 . "Yesterday... a couple told how they nicknamed him"Hann ibal Lecte whi le l iv ing in one of his basem entf lats... The couple l ived below Jefferies for e ightmo nths...and became convinced he had secret lybeen into thei r f lat".

The Sunday Mirror, 2 January 2011:

26 . "A former student of bai led suspect Ch ristopherJefferies yesterda y told how the ret i red Engl ishteachers favourite poem tel ls the story of a manwho wa s hange d for cutt ing his w i fes throat...Theoddba l l teacher bizarrely ordered stude nts to holdhands as they reci ted the macabre poem ."

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It is clear that al l of these articles were calculated to vi l i fyme and convince the publ ic that l was respo nsible notonly for Ms Yeates murder but other crimes ormisdem eanours as wel l . The coverage was disgracefuland un dermines basic principles of responsiblejournal ism and the r ight to a fai r t r ia l (as was recognisedin the contempt of court proceed ings which I deal wi thbelow).The m ost tel ling exam ple of the sel f-serving nature o f thetabloid press is the coverage of Greg R eardon s publicstatemen t in early January 20I 1.On or about 1 January 2011, Greg Reardon, Ms Yeates partner, issued a statemen t as a personal t r ibute to hisgi r lf r iend, w hich con tained the fol lowing:

"Jos f i fe was cut short tragical ly but the finger-pointingand character assassinat ion by social and new s med iaof as yet innocent men has been shamefu l t t has m ademe lose a tot of faith in the moral i ty of the Brit ish pressand those who spend thei r time f ixed to the intemet in

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th is modem age.. , I hope in the future they wi lt show amo re sensi t ive and imp art ia l v iew to those involved insuch hea rtbreaking eve nts and esp ecially in the lead-upto poten t ia l ly high-prof ile court c ases"


30. The m ajori ty of the new spape rs fai led to report thissect ion of his tr ibute an d those that did, ei ther om ittedthe part about m y character assassinat ion or cut thestatemen t to such an e xtent that i t read e nt i relydi f ferently ( for example, the Sun day M irror, the M ai l onSunday and the Sunday Express) .

31 . I t is also notewo rthy that none of the pape rs whichechoed the defam atory coverage of the e ight who h avebeen sued but which themselves we re not subject to al ibel act ion ha ve printed anything which m ight suggestthat they regretted thei r part in the m edia wi tch-hunt.

My expe r ience fol lowing m y release on bai l32. W hen I wa s released by the P ol ice, I could not return to

my h ome because of the Pol ice investigat ions and for myow n safety, t , therefore, went to stay wi th fr iends. No o ne,other than the Po l ice, m y sol ic itors and fr iends/relat ivesknew where I was.

33. I was p rovided wi th an escort f rom the Pol ice station tomy fr iends house by the Pol ice. The Pol ice had to set upa deco y car to divert reporters at tent ion awa y from m eand preven t them from fol lowing me to m y fr iends house.My t ime in custody and the d ays fol lowing m y release wasl ike being catapul ted into a mo vie; events seeme d to havetheir own mom entum. I t was surreal.

34 . As I have expla ined, when I arr ived at my fr iends house,they spared m e the detai ls of the extent of the presscoverage of m y arrest and m y sol ic itor was required toadvise m e not to go out in publ ic.

35 . From the per iod when I was re leased on ba i l on 1 January2011 to wh en Vincent Tabak w as arres ted on suspic ion ofmurd er on 22 January 2011 , I wa s effect ively under housearCest. Within a few days of being released, 1 had to makethe decis ion to change m y appe arance, inc luding cutt ing

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short my hair and dying i t brown.


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During this t ime I only went ou t af ter dark to occasional lywalk m y fr iends dog. I could not go o ut dur ing the day forfear of being recognised.This was al l a result of the med ia frenzy created about myarrest.After staying wi th fr iends in B ristol for a whi le, I moved onto stay wi th fr iends e lsewhere. The day after I changedaddress es, I walked do wn the road to m y fr iendsneighbour to use thei r computer (my fr iend did not haveem ai l access) and t recal l someone turning around to lookat me sharply in the street. The fol lowing day I received atelephone cal l f rom the fr iend w hom ~ ha d just lef t to saythat a num ber of reporters had turned up in the street.Apparently they stayed for about 2 days a l though they d idnot knoww hich house to survey. I assum e the person Isaw in the street informe d the newspa pers of mywhereabouts.I t was no t unt il 4 March 2011 that the P ol ice li fted m y bai lcondi t ions and forma l ly conf i rmed that I was n o longer asuspect.How ever, 1 was n ot able to return to my ho me unt i l Apri l2011, 3 mo nths after my arrest; I had to wai t for the Po l iceto release i t to m e an d unt i l the Pol ice had off ic ial lyconf i rme d i was n ot a suspect so that it was sa fe toreturn. When I did go ba ck to the house i t was no t in astate to be l ived in. Everyth ing had bee n turned upsidedow n as p art of the Pol ice invest igat ions. Al l my c lotheshad been rem oved and a num ber of other i tems had a lsobeen take n wh ich mea nt that I real ly only had the c lothes Ihad acqu i red s ince my re lease. When I re tu rned to m yhom e I had to sort through and re arrange everything. Theperiod from 1 Janu ary 2011 to early Apri l 2011 w as themost diff icult and harrowing of my l i fe.In fact, I have st il l to this day not seen mo st of the presscoverage from this period in i ts original pubfished form.Indeed, i t is only as a resul t of the l ibel proceed ings I

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pursued an d an art ic le by Brian Cathcart ent i t led Theordeal of C hristophe r Jefferies which featured in theF inanc ia l T imes on 8 O ctober 2011 that I have read andunderstood the fu l l extent of the mons tering of me b y thetab lo id press.

42. I do not read news papers regular ly but, when I do, I takeThe Guardian, the Financial Times and obcasional ly TheIndepen dent. The interview I gave to Brian Ca thcart is thef irst and only interv iew I have given for the purposes of anewsp aper art ic le. This wa s a di f ficu lt decis ion for m e butI chose to give the interview be cause I wan ted to have myside of the story heard and I w as conf ident that theFinancial Times w ould report i t responsibly.

43. As a resul t of my exp erience wi th the nat ional press, I wasappreh ens ive ab ou t read ing the ar t ic le in i ts pub l i shedform. On the d ay i t was publ ished, I could not bring m ysel fto read the a r t ic le unt i l the af ternoon; I wan ted to gatherthe reaction of my friends and relatives to the articlebefore read ing i t m ysel f - for fear of i t being da m aging.Br ian Ca thcar t d is t il led the co verage f rom those 3 daysand w hen f saw the ar t ic le on 8 O ctober 2011 i t was thef irs t time I h ad read a l l the h orrendous a l legat ions in onego and it left me shaken. I would say that reading theart ic le wa s one o f the most distressing experiences I havehad in my l if e . I t t ook m e the res t o f t he day to get overthe shock of reading i t . I was p leased to have p lans thatevening w ith fr iends as the art ic le left me feel ing that I d idnot wish to be on m y own that evening.

Contem pt of court proceedings44. Tw o of the tabloid newsp apers who reported m y arrest

(The S un and the D ai ly Mirror) were found to be inCon tempt of C ourt as a resul t of an act ion instigated bythe Attorney General and f ined 50,000 and 18,000respectively.

45 . I at tach a copy of the Judgme nt from the con temptproceedings which condem ns the newspapers conduct.Lord Just ice Thom as and M r Just ice Ow en described theDa ily Mirror articles as extrem e and substan tial risks to

Documentsreferred toPage 27 to 36

Pages 37 to 49

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the course o f justice. Lord Ch ief Just ice Lord Judgedescribed the treatme nt of me by the na t ional press asvilification.

Civ i l ac t ion a ga ins t Avon an d So m erset Po l ice


Imp ac t on me,47.

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~ have issued a c iv il act ion against Avon an d Som ersetPol ice for false imprisonment, breach of m y hum an rightsand trespass. This c laim is yet to be determined an d so Ido no t propose to go into any de tai ls in this statemen tabout my a rrest and my t ime in Pol ice custody.

m y f riends and fam i lyAfter my arrest m y fr iends an d relat ives w ere subjectedto an unacceptable degree o f press scrutiny amountingto harassm ent. Indee d, one of my relat ives was soconcerned about the press hounding her that shecontacted the Press Com plaints Com mission.As stated above, w hen I was released o n bai l I was toldby fr iends a nd fam i ly not to read the press co veragebecause i t would be d istressing for me. Of course, m yfr iends a nd fam i ly did read everything that was w ri ttenabout me . I wa s obl iv ious to what was going on duringthe 3 days I was in pol ice custody; howe ver, they werenot.I had spen t Christmas wi th relat ives in De rbyshire andhad planned to v isi t an Aunt in Cheshire for NewY ear.This obviously did not happe n. She wa s one of the f irs tpeop le I contacted after t was release d on bai l . She w asextreme ly relieved to hear from m e but said that she fel tthat the experience over those 3 days had ag ed her a100 years . She la ter in formed m e that one of m yCousins w as reluctant to go o ut for several days after Iwas arrested because he was w orried people wouldrecognise him or people would l ink us because we havethe same surname.Not only was the mon stering of me by the presssham eful but the coverage was a massive intrusion intomy pr ivate li fe. As stated ab ove, I had not had an ydeal ings wi th the press prior to Decem ber 2010 but

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5 1.

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fol lowing m y arrest the press publ ished an array ofinformation about m atters personal to me - albei texaggera ted or inaccurate. I was thrust into the l ime l ightin the most app al ling way po ssible.W hat str ikes m e mo st is the extent of the inaccuracies.To show jus t one exam ple of how absurd theinaccuracies were: the press suggested I was a closef r iend of a convicted paed ophi te and that ~ bought one o fmy f lats from him (hint ing that f was som ehow l inked tohis activit ies). In fact, this individual worked at a differentschool ( the prepara tory school to Cl if ton) and I had on lycom e across him on rare occasion at our PropertyManagem ent Company m eet ings. There had been 2previous own ers of his f lat prior to m y purchasing i t .In man y ways the bread th of the character assassinat ionis the worst part of the cove rage. The l ibel act ions havebeen reasona bly effective in vindicat ing my rep utat ion inrespect of the al legat ions that I murdere d Ms Y eates inthat mos t, if not al l , sensible people no w a ccept that Ihad nothing to do w i th her murder. However, the l ibelact ions have by no means addressed a l l the damagedone to m y persona l and professional reputat ion, which Ispent ove r 30 years bui lding, given the type o f storieswhich we re publ ished about m e personal ly andprofessional ly. [ doubt the dam age don e can ever berepaired. Had I not been ret i red, I th ink the effect on m ycareer would have been catastrophic.As stated ab ove, after being re leased on bai l I spentalmost 3 mon ths conf ined to m y fr iends houses. Evenafter I returned hom e and tr ied to return to some form ofnormal i ty , I remember being very apprehensive aboutgoing into cafes or shops be cause I did not know howpeople would react to me.


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Through no fault of my ow n, I had my l i fe turnedcompletely upside-down. I have essentially done nothingelse this year other than dea l with the aftermath of myarrest. I am no w at a point where I have com e to termswith what has happened to m e and try to bephilosophical and d etached from it. How ever, it is onlythrough sheer determinat ion that I have been ab le to getto this point and it does not detract from the experience .Whitst I have been through a horrendous ordeal thisyear, 1 have taken som e comfort from the fact that Ireceived a great deal of support from my friends, family,former pupils and mem bers of the public.I should me ntion that, whilst the libel actions have gon esome way to vindicate my repu tation, this was not aneasy e xercise at all. Fortunately, my s olicitors acted forme on a Condit ional Fee Agreement. Had they not doneso it would have been im possible for me to bringproceedings against the newspape rs because of thecost.I will never fully recover from the eve nts of last year. Theincalculable effect of what was written about m e by thesehighly influential tabloid newspapers is som ething fromwhich it will be diff icult ever to escape. The purpose o fmy a greeing to give this statement is that 1 hope it ma yprevent the same fate befalling someone else.

Statement of Truth


1 believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.DATED the ,~ day of November2011

Christopher Jefferies