A man involved in a Twitter exchange that led to Alastair Stewart's departure from his ITV News presenting duties has broken his silence after the broadcaster stepped down.
The famous broadcaster quoted lines of Shakespeare including the phrase "angry ape" during an argument with Martin Shapland, who is black.
Speaking out about his resignation and the claim of offensive Twitter behaviour last night, Stewart said: "It was a misjudgement which I regret, but it’s been a privilege to bring the news to households throughout the UK for the past 40 years."
Today Mr Shapland tweeted: "Thank you to those who have been in touch in the last few days about Alastair Stewart.
"I apologise for not getting back to media enquiries more quickly in particular.
"I am not planning to make on or off the record comments beyond the statement below and a few clarifying tweets."
He posted a statement that said: "In so far as Mr Stewart caused hurt and upset, intentionally or otherwise, in an exchange earlier this month, there is a wider context.
"There was not a single post as has been widely reported, but several posts written by Mr Stewart, which have all now been deleted.
"I understand that Mr Stewart has acknowledged the words he used were misjudged and has expressed regret at what happened. I thank him for that.
"No one is perfect. We are all human and we all need to learn from our experiences and mistakes and try to be better people in the wake of them.
"An apology and commitment to be more careful about language was all that I would have asked.
"It is regrettable that he has decided to stand down and I take no pleasure in that. He has evidently gone through and ITN and ITV process and I respect his choice.
"Civil and political discourse has become far too vicious n the last five years. I would ask that we try to treat each other with a little more respect, kindness and understanding. In that spirit I consider this matter closed and I wish Mr Stewart the best in his future endeavours."
Mr Shapland added: "Much of the context of the discussion was lost after tweets were deleted and I won't go into detail here.
"I do, however, want to clarify that I don't know how ITN, ITV and Mr Stewart came to a conclusion or what background there was beyond any exchange I had with him."
