Angus Stickler, the journalist responsible for the Newsnight report that falsely accused Lord McAlpine of being a paedophile, has resigned from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BiJ).
Stickler, an award-winning journalist who was the bureau's chief reporter, was seconded to BBC2's Newsnight to investigate child sex abuse at a north Wales care home in the 1970s and 1980s.
The BiJ's trustees decided that it had been a "serious mistake" for the bureau to allow Stickler to work for Newsnight on an investigation over which the BBC had sole editorial control.
Rachel Oldroyd, the BiJ's deputy editor, confirmed Stickler's resignation in a brief email. She has been holding the fort since the editor, Iain Overton, resigned in the immediate wake of the scandal breaking. Last week, the BiJ's trustees appointed Christopher Hird as the new editor.
The BIJ, which is based at City University London, was established in 2010 as a non-profit organisation funded almost entirely by the Elaine & David Potter Foundation.
Hat tip: The Times
