West Ham United plc is pleased to announce that it has settled
the case against Barrie Abrahams, one of the three members of the
Whistle group against whom the company was forced to bring
defamation proceedings in May 2004.
Barrie Abrahams' statement including an apology is reproduced
in full below:
"In April 2004, a group calling itself "Whistle"
published a news release and open letter addressed to Terence
Brown, Chairman of West Ham United Football Club plc which owns
West Ham United Football Club.
West Ham United issued defamation proceedings against me and two
other members of Whistle, Mr Mike Hanna and Mr David Bick, on 10th
May 2004 in respect of statements made in the news release and open
letter.
I have now confirmed the following to West Ham United:
1. I was not an author (or editor) of the news release and
open letter;
2. I was not responsible for the publication of the news
release and open letter;
3. I received legal advice prior to their publication to the
effect that some of the statements made in the news release and
open letter might well be defamatory and therefore made it
expressly clear that the news release and open letter must not be
published in their current form.
I have been advised that West Ham United's motivation for
taking action in respect of the news release and the open letter
was to seek redress against those it considered to be propagating
untruthful and damaging statements about it and to obtain
protection against this happening again in the future.
In my Defence (filed in October 2004) I stated for the first time
that I was not responsible for publication or authorship of the
open letter and news release. Unfortunately, I did not
formally clarify my position in relation to the published
statements until 28th February 2005. Upon receipt of this
clarification, West Ham United has agreed not to pursue any further
claim against me in respect of the statements made. I
apologise for not making my position clear from the outset and have
made a contribution towards the costs that have been wasted as a
result of this."
West Ham United is pleased that this matter has been brought to a
satisfactory conclusion. As reported here on 29 November 2004,
David Bick, one of the other defendants, has already issued an
apology and correction for the statements which were the subject of
the defamation proceedings and paid West Ham United substantial
damages and a contribution to legal costs.
Club Announcement
17th March 2005