There was at this time a practicing barrister in London called Artemus Jones. His wife read the article in the Sunday Chronicle and she was livid. He told her the story was nonsense, he was not having an affair with a French woman and he assured her that he had not even been to the festival in Dieppe.
Artemus Jones sued the publishers of the newspaper for libel. In its defence, the publishers argued that they had simply made up a fake name and an entirely fictitious story. They said they had no intention of defaming the barrister Artemus Jones. The case went all the way to the House of Lords.
In the seminal case of E. Hulton & Co v Jones [1910] AC 20, the House of Lords held that the intention of the publisher does not matter. A number of readers had given evidence that they believed the scandalous article about the barrister was true. The court held that if reasonable people reading the article conclude that it refers to a real person, the publisher is legally responsible for the harm, whether it was intended or not.
Fast forward to the 21st Century and the spirit of Artemus Jones remains alive and well.
In August 2025, an article presented as a “confessional piece” appeared in the Daily Mail, published by Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), bylined by an individual called “Anna Melton”. In this article, Anna Melton was said to be “confessing” to having taken cocaine at a child’s birthday party.
The real Anna Melton is a former journalist who now works in public relations. As well as identifying Anna Melton by name, the article said that her husband worked in IT (which is true of the real Anna Melton’s husband) and that they had young sons (which is also true).
Anna Melton’s mother has the Daily Mail delivered to her house every day. In much the same way as the wife of Artemus Jones a century earlier, when she opened up her newspaper and read the article, she was absolutely livid. She phoned her daughter immediately: how could you be so stupid, she said, not only to do hard drugs, but to do them at a child’s birthday party of all places, and then to write about it all in a national newspaper!
Anna Melton told her mother she had not written the story and she assured her that not a shred of it was true, but she admitted she was very confused by the striking similarities to her own life and that of her family. She believed that the article could have been generated by AI.
She contacted ANL immediately to make a formal complaint. ANL’s initial response (which was not unhelpful for the legal team further down the line) was that they had simply made up the name “Anna Melton” and that the piece was entirely fictitious.
Anna Melton said the article had caused her very serious reputational damage on both a personal and professional level, but ANL waved her complaint away and said they hadn’t done anything wrong. They also denied that the article had been generated by AI.
Understandably dissatisfied with ANL’s response, she contacted IPSO, which purports to be the independent regulator for the British newspaper industry, but is in fact a complaints body that is operated and controlled by the press itself. Likewise, IPSO took no action in respect of the article.
Anna Melton has said she honestly believes her initial dealings with ANL and IPSO were ‘nothing short of gaslighting’. However, she was put in touch with the Press Justice Project, who in turn put her in touch with specialist libel lawyers.
After a detailed Pre-action Protocol compliant Letter of Claim was waved away by the in-house legal team at ANL, libel proceedings were issued. ANL subsequently instructed external lawyers and they went on to make an Offer of Amends.
Although the settlement negotiations are confidential, the terms of settlement are not. ANL has agreed to permanently take down the article, it has published an apology to Anna Melton (both online and in the Daily Mail newspaper), given non-repeat undertakings and it has agreed to pay her substantial libel damages and costs.
Anna Melton will be speaking about her experience at the next event hosted by the Press Justice Project, titled ‘Misogyny and The Press’, which will be taking place at Outer Temple Chambers on 13 October 2026. Other confirmed speakers at the event include Gina Miller, Carole Cadwalladr, Lisa Moorish and Zelda Perkins.
Anna Melton was represented by Alex Cochrane (Partner), Dhillon Purnell-Mullick (Solicitor) and Lucy Agombar (Trainee Solicitor) in the Media Law Team at Edwards Duthie Shamash. Ian Helme of Matrix Chambers was instructed.