Joanna Yeates

Joanna Yeates was a 25 year old Landscape Architect from Hampshire who's body was found on Christmas day in 2010. Yeates was described as ambitious and had a bright carer to look forward to. She had been missing since the 17^th of November since a night out with friends so Police enquiries had already been opened before the body had been found. The case was heavily publicised by the media and prior to her body being found rewards of up to £60,000 were being offered for information on her whereabouts. The case is regarded as one of the largest to have ever taken place in the Bristol area and the story was omnipresent in news reports over the Christmas period.

The police originally arrested Christopher Jefferies a former teacher and also Yeates' landlord at the time. Jefferies lived in the same building as Yeates and the editor of The Mirror Richard Wallace claims the police were 'confident' they had found their man. However what followed from the press meant that the whole coverage of ongoing cases by the press had to be re-evaluated. Christopher Jefferies was morphed into an evil villain by the newspapers as they wrote some seriously defamatory statements about him in an attempt to portray him as the murderer. The news coverage was not only severely defamatory and a libel nightmare but also in complete contempt of court.

It is believed that the Police in the surrounding Avon and Somerset area had been in close contact with Journalists and were feeding them confidential information that was damaging to the case. Contempt of court is defined as 'An act of deliberate disobedience or disregard for the laws, regulations, or decorum of a public authority, such as a court or legislative body.' The sun and The Mirror were both found guilty of publishing documents that could influence the outcome of the trial and charged with contempt of court. Chris Jefferies also received compensation from 8 newspapers for damages to him including The Sun and The Mirror. Mr Jefferies was also asked to give evidence for the Leverson enquiry which intended to investigate the controversial and often unethical methods used by British Journalists. Jefferies claimed that after his arrest he was harassed by several Newspapers hunting for stories to run that would bastardise his name even further.

The Police later found out the Murderer was in fact Vincent Tabak a Dutch Engineer and a neighbour of Yeates. Tabak was convicted of murder on the 28^th October 2011 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The case proved to be another big public relations nighmare for the press who had just had to take accountabilty for the Phone hacking scandal which had already critically damaged the reputation of Journalists and the profession in general. A bill was proposed that a Journalist who mentioned an uncharged suspect would receive a 6 month charge but has yet to be passed. However the whole media coverage of the event was a disgrace not only to Chris Jefferies who avoided returning home for three months due to embarrassment but also to Yeates' family who not only had the death of their daughter to deal with but also misleading and tactless news coverage.