Examination of Witness (Question Numbers
279-279)
MR TIM
FULLER
19 MARCH 2009
Q276 Chairman: Mr Fuller, good morning.
We have been hearing from Anthony Langan of the Samaritans. Would
it be all right if he continued to stay?
Mr Fuller: Yes.
Chairman: Can I thank you very much for
coming to talk to the Committee this morning. As you know, we
are conducting an inquiry into the general standards of the press
and privacy intrusion. We have focused particularly on what happened
in Bridgend and the way it was reported and we would be very keen
to hear from you. Can I express, on behalf of the whole of the
Committee, our sympathy with your loss?
Q277 Rosemary McKenna: Good morning,
Mr Fuller and thank you again. Could you describe to us the interaction
that you had with the media, with the press, following your daughter's
death?
Mr Fuller: I have been reviewing
the whole process on the way down because there is more than just
what happened after the article. If I analyse the whole scenario,
it started on the day I went down to Bridgend. I live in Derbyshire
and I went down to Bridgend to see the police and identify Angeline
and so forth. The press were waiting to get the story out. I went
the day after she died so the press were keen to get the details
of who it was, where it was and get the address. The Coroner was
very good, very accommodating, and would not release that information
until after he spent time with myself. It was at the end of that
session with the police when that was wrapped up and I was ready
to go home the police and the Coroner let me know that they had
released the details of the name and address of my daughter and
advised that unless I could handle it not to go anywhere near
the address because there were cameras and press and all sorts
there. At the time I was OK with it. It had been a long hard day
and I was ready to get back. I had children at home being looked
after that I wanted to get back to. It did block that opportunity
to go back perhaps to the scene if I felt that way. In hindsight
I wondered why I did not do it. Would I have done it given the
opportunity? Probably on the day I would not have done but on
reflection for other people as well the fact that all that was
going on there if you really felt you wanted to go and have look
at what happened, maybe pick up one or two things, I was really
advised that unless I could handle people coming for information
that would not be a good idea. That is where it started. I was
told that the press and the media were free to release that information
and report on it and were likely to do so very soon. One thing
I found was I was frantically making phone calls to people that
perhaps I would not speak to for two or three days. Maybe if they
put the news on and they have children they would pick the papers
up the next morning and they would see all this information. I
felt I wanted to let them know myself rather than seeing it firsthand
in the media. I was put under pressure there. It took away from
me the opportunity to let people know what had happened. I am
not saying it should not have been reported on but that is the
effect it had. I was forced into a panic situation. A close family
member and myself spent a few hours on the internet that evening
looking at all the newspaper sites to see what they were saying.
We discovered one of them had a front page feature so first thing
in the morning there were one or two people I needed to let know
straight away because on the way to work they would see this and
buy a paper and they would be faced with this. It put a lot of
pressure on me. I understand the way the media needs to work.
There is no point reporting something that happened a week ago
as it is old news but it had an effect on me.
Q278 Rosemary McKenna: Do you think
the Coroner's office could have kept that information for another
day? Would that have been helpful?
Mr Fuller: It would have been
useful from my perspective. I do not know if that is fair on the
media to do that. In perspective, if it happened somewhere else
in the country there would not have been this great interest but
it was because it was Bridgend. She had not been there long. She
had lived there about 18 months so in a way she was an outsider.
As soon as I heard what had happened it did not take me long to
realise she is in Bridgend and it will be everywhere which it
was in a short time. It was because of the magnitude of the story
and the history that what was actually a detached case became
part of a growing story.
Q279 Rosemary McKenna: Did the press
speak to you?
Mr Fuller: No. The police asked
me if I wanted the statement issued from them and for the press
to stay away and they did that and nobody contacted me. We did
not get any intrusion. Somebody knocked on my door the next evening
and we were sure at the time that he was an Express reporter
but on reflection he could have been from the Stockport Express.
A few months before I had set up my own company so I am prepared
to accept that in the heat of the moment I may have sent him away
saying he should not be there. I cannot say. I may have had a
Daily Express reporter on the doorstep but it may have
been coincidence that somebody did turn up. Aside from that I
rang the police liaison and they said if somebody approaches you
from the press and you ask them to leave because they should not
be there and they go there is nothing more that can be done. They
cannot pursue it. I did not have any more interaction with the
press apart from the fact that whenever anything else happened
in Bridgend the whole story was related again. I think the meeting
was called in Bridgend. I was invited to attend a meeting with
the PCC but because of the distance and taking a whole day out
from what I could cover in 15 minutes at the time I wrote to Steve
Abell at the Press Complaints Commission. I did not attend the
meeting. I had some feedback from that and he asked me for a statement
to forward to the newspaper. I have brought it with me. If you
want any of the paperwork I am quite happy for you to have a copy
of what I said to Steve Abell which he passed on to the Daily
Express. Through him they apologised for certain content and
the way it was reported although they do not feel that they overstepped
any lines. Aside from that I have not had any major problems.
It is just the issue of the way it has left me feeling for myself
and the empathy I feel for other families. A few weeks after Angeline's
death—I cannot remember all the details—there was
a girl who died. I am not sure if she fell from a balcony or what
the circumstances were but it was believed she was bullied or
something. She was a lovely girl and her picture was on the front
page of the newspaper. To me I did not need to see the picture.
She was a lovely girl and it made the story. If they had said
this had happened and the tragic circumstances and she is dead,
that for me, as a non-family member and not knowing this girl,
that would have been sufficient. I knew at that point, because
of what I had been through, all her family and close friends would
be seeing their daughter and knowing their daughter's picture
was in millions of households of total strangers up and down the
country. It was the front page as well which is really what exacerbates
it. I mentioned in my letter to Mr Abell that just about every
newspaper carried the report on Angeline's death from the small
ones to the broadsheets but they were contained inside. It was
only the Daily Express that had the front page article.
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