Story behind this headline: 'Nudist Welfare Man’s Model Wife Fell For The Chinese Hypnotist From The Co-op Bacon Factory'

Ex-News of the World reporter Roy Stockdill on Gentlemanranters tells the story behind one of the paper's most famous headlines and reveals it could have been even more bizarre.
He recalls: "The 15-word, four-deck header, sprawling right across a five-column broadsheet page, appeared above a story written by Ron Mount, one of the paper's veteran foot-in-the-door men.
"It had all the elements of a Whitehall farce and starred the welfare services chief of a large London borough who was a practising naturist and walked round his home in the buff. His wife, a part-time model, had had an extra-marital relationship with a gentleman of Oriental extraction who did indeed work in a Co-op bacon factory and was an amateur hypnotist and therapist in his spare time.
"The nudist welfare chief had actually encouraged his wife's friendship with her Chinese paramour in the belief that he was treating her for problems in their marriage – until, that is, one day he climbed into the loft, drilled a hole in the bedroom ceiling and observed his good lady and the hypnotist indulging in some practical therapy on the bed below."
Stockdill also reveals: "The one fact the otherwise admirable headline omitted was that the welfare chief had managed to get up into his loft despite having two artificial legs, so he was actually a legless nudist welfare man… Unfortunately, the sub later admitted, he couldn't work the word ‘legless’ into the headline for lack of space."
Let's see: "Legless Nudist Welfare Man’s Model Wife Fell For The Chinese Hypnotist From The Co-op Bacon Factory". That's even better and a rival to the New York Post's classic: "Headless Man Found in Topless Bar".

Burrell complaint against News of the World: 'I had sex with Princess Diana' story is upheld

The Press Complaints Commission today upheld ex-royal butler Paul Burrell's complaint against a News Of the World story, headlined 'Burrell: I had sex with Diana', which was published on 15 June this year.
The article reported the claim by Ron Cosgrove, the former butler's brother-in-law, that Burrell had once revealed to him in a pub that he had had sex with the Princess. The PCC said the NoW should have published Burrell's denial to the allegations. The paper claimed it had other sources to support the story. The complaint was upheld on the grounds that it breached the editors' code of practice on accuracy. You can read the full adjudication on the PCC website.

Would the PCC have backed Max Mosley and spanked the News of the World?

The Press Complaints Commission is probably glad that it did not have to adjudicate over the revelations in the News of the World about F1 president Max Mosley. The issue seems to have divided the media and flared up again with Paul Dacre's speech at the Society of Editors' conference attacking Mr. Justice Eady's ruling in favour of protecting Mosley's right to privacy. Dacre described Mosley's behaviour in paying women to spank him as "unimaginable sexual depravity". But what would the PCC have done? Talking to those in the know at the SoE conference was interesting. They believe that the PCC would have had to have found against the NoW because there were no overwhelming public interest grounds for invading Mosley's privacy. That would have been a highly controversial decision at a time when the PCC is worried that the poor financial state of the media may lead to calls to cut its budget, which is solely funded by the newspaper and magazine industry.