Forner royal butler Paul Burrell has denied he was angry and hurt because private information being passed to the News of the World by disgraced PR guru Max Clifford did not sell.
Mr Burrell told Deputy Judge Richard Spearman that a fax which Clifford sent to editor Rebekah Brooks in November 2002 was a “very personal, intimate and private documentation” of details about his life with the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the late Princess Diana which were not in the public domain.
“I worried about putting that down on paper and I worried if I was trusting the right person with that information,” he said.
He rejected a claim by Steven Barrett, counsel for Clifford, that the information about the butler’s fall downstairs and the help given him by the Queen was not “very exciting”. He said: “At that time it would have been very interesting to any tabloid.”
Mr Barrett said: “Is it entirely possible that your anger and hurt feelings have arisen because this story just didn’t sell?” Mr Burrell replied: “Absolutely not.”
He was watched at London’s High Court by Clifford, who has branded the £50,000 action for breach of confidence and misuse of private information an “affront to common sense”.
He says Mr Burrell authorised him to send the fax as a “pitch” but Mr Burrell says he hired Clifford to limit bad press coverage about him and any agreement was terminated before the fax was sent.
Referring to Clifford, Mr Burrell said “This is a man who I was betrayed by.”
The case continues.
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