Memorandum submitted by Paul Vaughan
My name is Paul Vaughan. I am the Managing Director
of PVA Management Limited, a long established agency and management
company which looks after the interests of a number of high profile
individuals who work not only in front of the camera and microphone,
but also in senior production capacities behind them.
In this context, I am the manager of Chris Tarrant,
currently best known perhaps as the presenter of the television
programme "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". Unfortunately
Chris is also well known in the context of the divorce proceedings
that are currently being brought against him. I have represented
Chris for nearly thirty years. I also know his wife Ingrid well,
and I am the godfather of their 15-year-old son, Toby who attends
a local school on a daily basis.
Chris and I are very well aware of the maxim
regarding heat and kitchens and while we would all wish otherwise,
we do realise and to some extent accept that one of the prices
that has to be paid for a high profile is the incessant and amazingly
intensive interest shown by the press in every move, literal and
figurative, made by any public figure "in the news".
However, this highly intrusive laser-like spotlight
tends to fall, quite unjustly, on those close to the subject;
in this case on Ingrid Tarrant and her children. Remaining in
the family home following the break-up which saw Chris remove
elsewhere, Ingrid found herself for weeks on end under siege by
at least thirty individuals; reporters, television and stills
cameramen, stringers and other individuals.
This meant that they were forced to conduct
their daily lives behind closed curtains; the press pointing cameras
and specialised microphones at the house which is close to the
public highway. Furthermore, when Ingrid was obliged to go out
to the shops or to take Toby to school, she was subjected to a
onslaught of flashlights before being pursued in her car. On a
number of occasions, in trying to get away from the pursuers,
perilous situations occurred and both she and those with her in
the car—notably Toby—were put in danger. I understand
that there was one occasion on which her car actually left the
road and damage was done to its suspension.
Believe me that the circumstance I relate above
were but the tip of a most considerable iceberg occasioning considerable
concern to all, particularly to Chris who wanted to do all that
he could to reduce the press pressure which was telling most seriously
on Ingrid and his family in terms of health.
Despite our having explained all of this to
individual editors and courteously requested them to "call
off the hounds", the press presence and concomitant pressure
actually increased, with a posse of increasing size literally
camped day and night outside the family home in Esher. It was
at this stage, having also approached the police that, as a matter
of last resort we decided to approach the Press Complaints Commission.
I say last resort as we did not wish to be seen to be bleating
and to bring down even more pressure from those who might have
felt that they had been reported to the Headmaster!!
I was surprised though much relieved that I
was able to speak at once on the telephone with the PCC Director,
Tim Toulmin and the Assistant Director, Stephen Abell. I was able
to give the facts verbally before being asked to follow these
up in written form. I was given both gentlemen's direct telephone
numbers for office hours and also for out of office hours. It
was to the great relief of all that within a matter of hours,
the caravan at Esher began to pack up and disperse. Ingrid was
no longer tailed in her car; the dangers of that being removed
at a stroke.
I hardly need to add in conclusion that Chris
and I, and indeed Ingrid and her family, have good reason to be
inordinately grateful to the PCC. We could not have asked for
a more proactive or more urgent response to our problems.
February 2007
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