Meadows Care Ltd & Anor v Lambert & Anor
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE BEAN
Areas of Law
- Tort Law
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Meadows Care Ltd and Pathfinders Childcare Ltd sued Councillor Colin Lambert and Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council for slander based on remarks Lambert made criticizing private care homes after a high-profile sexual offence case in Rochdale. The court held that Lambert's remarks, criticizing systemic issues in private care homes, were expressions of opinion, not defamatory statements of fact, and dismissed the defamation claim.
Judgment
Mr Justice Bean :
This claim for slander is brought against Councillor Colin Lambert, leader of Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and against the Council itself, by two companies which operate residential children’s care homes in the Rochdale area and elsewhere. Meadows Care Ltd is the largest of the seven or so private sector operators of such children’s care homes in Rochdale. Pathfinders Childcare Ltd is a smaller provider with two such homes in Rochdale and a further three elsewhere in Northwest England. There are 41 such homes in Rochdale, some of them very small. The claimants depend for their work on children being referred to them by local authorities.
On 8 th May 2012, after a trial in the Crown Court at Liverpool before His Honour Judge Clifton and a jury, nine men were convicted of a range of serious sexual offences, including rape, against over 40 girls and vulnerable young women. Both the perpetrators and the victims lived in the Rochdale area. These grave crimes, in what became known as the Rochdale grooming case, led to a wave of national publicity and concern.
Following the convictions the Council established a Rochdale Community Forum which held its launch meeting on 30 th May 2012. The evidence before me gives little detail about the Forum. A list of participants, which may not be complete, has 14 names, including Sir Peter Fahy (Chief Constable of Greater Manchester), Nazir Afzal OBE (Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England) and Jim Dobbin, Member of Parliament for the neighbouring constituency of Heywood and Middleton. The meeting was open to the public and press. Among those attending was the reporter Chris Jones of the Rochdale Observer and Heywood Advertiser, who made shorthand notes.
Pleadings
The present claim was issued on 23 rd April 2013 and amended by consent on 19 th June 2013. Paragraphs 7-10 of the Amended Particulars of Claim, so far as material, read as follows:-
“7. On 30 May 2012 immediately following an open launch meeting for the Rochdale Community Forum the First Defendant, in his capacity and role as a representative and leader of the Second Defendant, spoke and published to substantial numbers of the assembled audience and members of the press the following words defamatory of the Claimants and each of them (“the Forum Publication”):”
“Don’t send any more ‘vulnerable’ kids to us… The legislation surrounding private care homes is totally inadequate. They do not do with it says on the tin. T