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The humiliation of John Prescott, the threat to his marriage of 44 years and the undermining of the political party that he adores cost the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror just £20,000 and very little work.
The scoop revealing that the 67-year-old Deputy Prime Minister had a two-year affair with a secretary in his office came from a phone call made by Barrie Williams, the woman's former fiance.
Williams signed the standard Mirror contract. He would probably not have noticed the "payable only on publication" clause that gave the paper a get-out if the editor or publisher decided not to publish, a distinct possibility given the political leanings of the Mirror.
It was at this stage that the tabloid's in-house lawyer was told of the story and asked for his comments. He pointed out that there
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The Mirror knew it had far more to gain than it risked losing, says chris boffey
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could be a dispute about the copyright of the pictures and diaries owned by Temple. The advice: use the information in the diaries and the existence of the pictures to force Prescott to admit the affair. Prescott quickly caved in and asked for time over the weekend to speak to his wife and sons, one of whom, David, used to be a reporter on The People.
The Deputy Prime Minister was told on Monday that the story would be appearing the next day, but he was not told that the newspaper would be using the pictures and quotations from the diaries in case of a last-minute copyright injunction. The paper knew that the syndication of the pictures could make them as much as £60,000, three times the initial outlay, and the cost of any legal battles would be outweighed by the boost to the Mirror's circulation which has been consistently falling. 
FIRST POSTED MAY 2, 2006
 Fleet Street's guilty men
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