The editor of the Sunday Express today denied being the "puppet" of his boss, Richard Desmond, or that his newspaper was used to "settle vendettas".
Martin Townsend, who has edited the paper since 2001, was giving evidence to the high court in London on the fourth day of the libel action Desmond has launched against the biographer Tom Bower.
Desmond, who owns the Express and Star newspapers and OK! magazine, denies claims made by Bower in a book about Conrad Black that he was humiliated by Black after he apologised for two articles the Sunday Express wrote about the jailed Canadian tycoon in 2002. The pair were rivals at that time, when Black owned the Telegraph newspaper group.
Ronald Thwaites QC, for Bower, suggested Desmond was the real editor of the Sunday Express, and that he would stalk the newsroom regularly demanding changes to stories – Townsend was just the proprietor's "puppet".
"I'm not a puppet," said Townsend, "[Desmond] does not walk around ordering things. He does walk around the newsroom from time to time, as it happens, but he does not get involved."
Townsend said it was purely his decision to publish negative pieces about Black.
The court heard that a former Sunday Express journalist, David Hellier, who is expected to give evidence this afternoon, claims Townsend told him that Desmond wanted a negative story about Black to run in the paper's media section. The story, Hellier claims he was told, was to be "as black as can be", and should contain "all the shit" about Black.
But Townsend denied such a conversation had taken place, and said anyway, "that's not an expression I would use, and I find it insulting," said Townsend. "I would never use the s-word with my staff … it's a pure invention that I resent."
Townsend was asked about Pentagon Capital Management, a hedge fund to which the Sunday Express had to pay damages after libelling it last year. Desmond told the jury yesterday that he had invested many millions with the firm, and that shortly before the libellous article was printed he was unhappy with them because they wouldn't pay out around £50,000 to his son.
Today Townsend denied knowing about Desmond's personal dispute, and said he commissioned a story about Pentagon after overhearing Desmond talking to other executives about general problems the fund was having.
Had he known about Desmond's personal connection to the fund, he would not have run the story, he told the jury.
"My newspaper has not and will not and has never been used to settle vendettas," he said.
The case continues.
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