Tony Barrett, the Merseyside football correspondent for the Times praised for apologising for his paper’s failure to cover the Hillsborough stadium disaster inquest verdict on its front page, has resigned.
Barrett, a native of Liverpool who formerly worked at the Liverpool Echo, was widely praised on social media when he expressed his shock and offered an apology on Twitter for the failure of the Times to put the story on the front page.
When the first-edition front page of the Times was revealed on social media the evening before hitting news stands, Barrett tweeted “unbelievable”, a post that was retweeted almost 2,500 times and “liked” by nearly 3,000 users.
Unbelievable.
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) April 26, 2016
The next day, Barrett, who subsequently flew to Madrid with the Liverpool team after tweeting about the front-page incident, put out an apology for his newspaper’s decision.
To everyone who's been let down I'm so sorry.
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) April 27, 2016
The Sun, which has been widely boycotted in Liverpool for decades after accusing fans of causing the disaster with its infamous “The Truth” splash, also failed to run the story on its front page.
Both titles were heavily criticised on social media, with John Witherow, the editor of the Times, admitting it had made a mistake.
We've been criticised today for not having Hillsborough on our first edition front page. This is our response: pic.twitter.com/GNhBN6g3S1
— The Times of London (@thetimes) April 27, 2016
Later editions of the Times included an image of relatives of the 96 Liverpool fans who died.
The masthead was changed to highlight coverage inside, under the heading: “Hillsborough: an end at last to the smears and lies.”
Barrett, who covered the verdict for the Times, is understood to have not yet set a date to leave.
News UK, the publisher of the Times and Sun, declined to comment.
