Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie to face legal action from Liverpool news agency Mercury over Hillsborough claims

John Sutton
Dec 9 2011

FORMER Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie was threatened with legal action and branded “a liar” after claiming his infamous story about the Hillsborough disaster came from a news agency from Liverpool.

Chris Johnson, editor of the Liverpool-based Mercury news agency, today said the claim was “ludicrous.”

Speaking on the BBC’s Daily Politics yesterday about The Sun’s “The Truth” story which included dreadful false accusations against Liverpool supporters, MacKenzie claimed: “That story came from a Liverpool news agency”.

Under questioning from Andrew Marr, MacKenzie also admitted he would now handle how The Sun covered the disaster differently.

He said: “If I could revisit Hillsborough, certainly I would do it in a different way.

“I would do it in the way that every other newspaper did it, which was basically that they ran the story and said ‘big fury over’, and I wish I had done that, yes”.

But Mr Johnson, who runs the Mercury Agency, was furious at MacKenzie’s outburst.

He told the ECHO: “You put a rat in a corner and it bites at the first thing it can find. This isn’t the first time MacKenzie has said this, he tried it before in 2007 - he is trying to lay a false trail and turn the tables back on Liverpool for his very sloppy piece of journalism.

“Our lawyers have written to MacKenzie and demanded he retract this statement.”

Mr Johnson was news editor of Mercury in 1989 when 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in the FA Cup tie in Sheffield.

From this position he would have seen all the stories written by his journalists and sent to the national press. He is adamant nothing like what appeared in The Sun originated in the city where thousands were grieving for loved ones.

He said: “I’d bet my life that story didn’t come from Liverpool, in the strongest terms, it was not something originated in this city.”

The Sun’s coverage of the disaster brought calls for MacKenzie’s resignation.

Sales of the tabloid paper plummeted in the Merseyside area and have never recovered. He was later required by Rupert Murdoch to apologise.

That apology has never been accepted in Liverpool.

At a parliamentary debate in October there were calls for an inquiry to establish the source of the story that caused so much hurt in Liverpool and there are hopes it may emerge from the work of the Hillsborough Panel.

* Last night’s London gig of the Justice Tonight tour saw Paul Simonon join former Clash bandmate Mick Jones on stage for the first time since 1982. The tour arrives home in Liverpool tonight.


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