Libel claim thrown out

A kent restaurateur has had a libel claim thrown out after he took a local newspaper to court about an article reporting a mystery illness that broke out among his guests.

London's High Court last week found nothing that could be read as libellous in the article published in the Kent and Sussex Courier last year.

The judge said the article had made it clear that preliminary results had shown Guiseppe Cappellazzi's High Rocks Inn in Tunbridge Wells had not been the source of the sickness that struck several guests who ate there on 3 December last year.

The article gave details from an environmental health officer about several people said to have become ill after a visit to the restaurant.

Mr Cappellazzi said an ordinary reader would understand the article to mean he was probably responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning.

Mr Cappellazzi was ordered to pay all the legal costs of the action so far. His lawyers said he would be considering an appeal.