03/02/2020 Economou v David De Freitas (Rev 1) [2016] EWHC 1853 (QB) (27 July 2016) seriously and legal action will be taken." It gave an account of what Mr Economou would say, if Mr de Freitas made "any further comment twisting the facts", and asked Mr de Freitas to pass the email to his lawyers. This email was in due course reported as a further act of harassment. 46. The First Guardian Article, containing all the words I have set out above, appeared in the hard copy edition of The Guardian dated 7 November 2014, under the headline "Woman who alleged rape killed herself on eve of trial". There were two sub-headlines: "CPS decision to pursue case called into question" and "Police said there was no evidence woman had lied." There were no other relevant changes to the wording. The hard copy of the newspaper will have been available for purchase from the early morning of 7 November 2014, or possibly late on 6 November at some outlets. 47. Ms Wistrich also passed to Ms Laville a copy of a witness statement which Mr de Freitas had prepared for the inquest, which named Mr Economou. She did so by way of background only, with a warning against using it without consulting her. There has been a dispute over whether that was something authorised by him. I shall come to that when I deal with the Public Interest defence. 48. The second publication complained of is an item broadcast shortly after 8am on 7 November 2014 by the BBC on its Today programme ("the Today Item"). The Item included an interview given by Mr de Freitas to John Humphrys. The interview had been recorded earlier that morning, at around 6:15am. Mr Humphrys introduced the item in these words: "Eleanor de Freitas was a disturbed young woman. In her first year at University she had a mental breakdown and she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Four years later she told the police that a man had tried to rape her. The police decided to take no action but the man she had accused himself brought a private prosecution, claiming that she had perverted the course of justice by making a false allegation. The police decided not to proceed with the case, but the Crown Prosecution Service took it over. Shortly before she was due to appear in court, Eleanor killed herself. She was 23. Now the Director of Public Prosecutions has said she will personally investigate why that decision to go ahead with the case was taken by her staff. I have been talking to Eleanor's father, David." 49. The interview included the following exchanges. The words complained of by Mr Economou are those spoken by Mr de Freitas which I have placed in bold. The questions place the answers in context: "JH: And what state was she in when she first told you that she had been raped? DdF: Well, Eleanor was diagnosed as being in what's called a mixed state, so she experienced highs and lows very frequently. And when I eventually found out about this and I went with her to the police station where she wanted to report the alleged incident, she was in a high state and a low state. She was wanting to get this off her chest, and then also at the same time she was very fearful, so if you like that's sort of two ends of the spectrum. JH: It's a very difficult question for you to answer, but did you believe her? DdF: Oh, very much so. I have absolutely no doubt about that. JH: And why do you think that the police did not believe her? DdF: Oh, the police did believe her. The police had no issues with what they saw presented to them. The police decided not to prosecute because there was evidence which was, how can I put it, inconsistent with her evidence, and what the police didn't want to have happen is for Eleanor to face a trial where she would be put in the position of being on trial herself. Um, and for that reason they decided not to continue with the prosecution. JH: And when the man who she alleged had raped her himself decided to take out a prosecution against her for a wrongful accusation, how did she react to that, and how did you react? www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2016/1853.htm 11/58