The photojournalist Jason Fraser has reacted angrily to a letter by claims by the editor of the Sunday People, Neil Wallis, that he "misled" the paper about the provenance of nude pictures of Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox.
"I read the editor of the Sunday People's letter to the editor of the Guardian with incredulity," he said. "It was astonishing."
"I did not mislead the Sunday People, it was certainly not misled.
"I did not take the photographs myself, but I accurately relayed the background to the photos to the Sunday People, which decided to publish them and chose the style in which they were presented."
The paper was forced to apologise to Cox after she complained that the pictures were taken on private property on the Seychelles, in contravention of the press complaints commission code of practice.
Mr Fraser refused to be drawn on whether he had discussed Wallis whether where the pictures were taken was public or private.
But tabloid sources claim the photographer was "hopping mad" about Wallis's letter in the Guardian yesterday, effectively distancing himself from Fraser and his agency.
Wallis said the decision to buy photographs of a naked Cox with her husband, DJ Jon Carter, on honeymoon, was "based on information from a well-known and extremely experienced photojournalist about the circumstances in which the picture was taken, information which led me to believe there was no danger of breaching the PCC code of practice."
He said that "the facts were different from what we had been lead to believe".
Cox is suing the People for invasion of her privacy after the apology, which had been agreed with the PCC, failed to soothe her anger.
The lawsuit, which comes shortly after Naomi Campbell sued the Mirror for invasion of privacy over photographs of her emerging from a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.
The question of who knew the island was private is likely to form crucial part of the evidence.
Mr Fraser's previous defence - immediately after the furore erupted - was to claim that Cox had not shunned the limelight and that her private life has been tabloid fodder for some years.
