The ECU found no evidence to support the complainant’s view that the BBC explicitly accused Mr Robinson of spreading rumours of a false name for the Southport suspect, although it was undoubtedly the case that Mr Yaxley-Lennon strongly implied that the perpetrator was an illegal immigrant. However, it accepted that a description of Mr Yaxley-Lennon in the broadcast as “sinister and ludicrous” went beyond what the Guidelines allow as a “professional judgement rooted in evidence”.  Whilst Mr Yaxley-Lennon’s record, which includes a five-year prevention order for harassing a journalist and her partner, might have justified the term “sinister” on its own, “ludicrous” as phrased in the comments, although partly prompted by the incongruous situation (beside a pool at a hotel in Cyprus) in which he was pictured, had the effect of applying the term to Mr Yaxley-Lennon personally (which was a matter which divided opinion).

Partly upheld