The prosecution of a Sun journalist for exposing army suicides and the death of soldiers due to lack of equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan has been branded “an absolute outrage” at the Old Bailey.
The jury in the trial of the Sun’s former chief reporter was asked to consider if John Kay was on trial simply because he “embarrassed” the defence secretary.
His barrister, Trevor Burke QC, said what Kay revealed about the army would never have been “surrendered” by the army or the Ministry of Defence.
In his closing speech, Burke took the jury through a sample of the 69 stories at the heart of Kay’s case. Kay is on trial over payments to MoD official Bettina Jordan-Barber and his barrister has argued that all the stories were in the public interest.
The first batch of stories related to a campaign the Sun launched on suicides at Deepcut Barracks following the death of three young soldiers. “The army didn’t connect these, but the press did,” said Burke.
“The Sun exposed it. The army would never have volunteered it. The source which forced the MoD to engage was Bettina Jordan-Barber,” Burke said, inviting the jury to decide how serious her misconduct was in leaking this to Kay, compared to how serious was the MoD’s concealment of it.
“You can rest assured that you would not be reading these stories if John Kay did not have the source he had, because they would not have surrendered it,” said Burke.
A story Kay wrote about the death of Sergeant Steve Roberts in Iraq in 2004 because he had been ordered to hand over bullet-proof plates days before due to a shortage of army kit, was absolutely in the public interest, said Burke.
“Where is the public interest in that? Could anyone dispute that it was [in the public interest]? It should be on the front page, it should be on every front page.
“It is a national disgrace that this man died … that he did because the MoD didn’t have a flak jacket.
“John Kay is being prosecuted for exposing this, it’s an outrage, it’s an absolute outrage,” said Burke.
He said the defence secretary at the time, Geoff Hoon, denied the shortages in kit.
“You are invited to convict this distinguished journalist. Why? Because he embarrassed Geoff Hoon?” asked Burke.
“This story would never have seen the light of day, in the detail we have it, if the MoD had its way,” he added.
He said a story that the prosecution deemed as “smutty”, about a “nookie-mad colonel”, was in the public interest because the army officer knew the relationship being exposed would get him the sack because of the strict codes applied to officers.
Another story by Kay revealed that a soldier had died in Iraq because he was forced to make a perilous journey by road instead of helicopter because the helicopters were out of operation for repairs.
Burke also cited a story about Colonel Bob Seddon’s resignation over a lack of army bomb-disposal units as a story that Kay should be hugely proud of.
He acknowledged that Seddon had a right to privacy, but said the public interest in exposing the reasons for his resignation trumped that.
The exposé by the Sun had contributed to £67m extra being contributed to army bomb-disposal units, Burke said.
He told the jury that Jordan-Barber was not the main source of the story, but even if she had been, the story was in the public interest.
“Don’t overly focus on the money, it is not the be all and end all of this case. Because there’s never been a dispute that Bettina Jordan–Barber accepted the money that she did,” said Burke, before inviting the jury to find John Kay not guilty.
The trial continues.
