`Pleb-gate` PC accepts £80,000 in damages

The police officer at the centre of the Downing Street Pleb-gate incident has accepted £80,000 damages in settlement of his libel action against former chief whip Andrew Mitchell.

PC Toby Rowland, from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), accepted the damages today (March 4) at the High Court in London after he brought a claim against Mr Mitchell after a judge ruled last year the MP probably had called PC Rowland, an officer on duty at Downing Street, a “pleb”.

Mr Mitchell accepted using bad language but said he had not used the word `pleb`. He has already been ordered to pay £300,000 in legal costs to the Sun newspaper and the Police Federation of England and Wales.

He also lost a high-profile case against News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun, in November when the judge concluded that Mr Mitchell had used the “politically toxic” word in September 2012 when he was not allowed to cycle through the main Downing Street vehicle gates.

PC Rowland`s lawyer, Jeremy Clarke-Williams said: “The payment of £80,000 damages by Mr Mitchell sets the seal on PC Rowland`s vindication, as well as providing compensation for the injury to his reputation and the distress caused to him and his family over many months.”

He added: “PC Rowland never felt that the events in Downing Street were anything more than a minor incident.

“He was not responsible for the publicity which followed and would have much preferred that the whole matter had never entered the public domain. He now simply wishes to be left in peace to continue his police career.”

Neither Mr Mitchell nor PC Rowland was in court.