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Elton John and David Furnish
Elton John and David Furnish made several inquiries about the girl’s welfare, their lawyer said. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Elton John and David Furnish made several inquiries about the girl’s welfare, their lawyer said. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Elton John accepts libel damages over Sun on Sunday 'dog attack' story

This article is more than 5 years old

Front-page article falsely claimed star’s pet inflicted serious injuries on a child

Elton John and David Furnish have accepted “significant” libel damages after suing over a Sun on Sunday front-page story that claimed their dog had inflicted serious injuries on a child.

The article described an incident at the couple’s home in which a young girl on a play date was allegedly attacked by their dog and left with “Freddy Krueger-like injuries”, the high court in London heard.

A lawyer for the couple said this was false, as was a claim that they failed to make any attempt to find out how the girl was afterwards.

“The truth is that the injuries were not serious and the claimants, far from ignoring the incident, made several inquiries about the girl’s welfare to her father and nanny,” said their solicitor, Jenny Afia. “Each time it was confirmed the girl was fine.”

She added: “I am pleased to say that the newspaper has now accepted unequivocally that this allegation was false and seriously defamatory. As a result, it has agreed now to apologise to Sir Elton John and David Furnish and to pay significant damages as well as to reimburse their legal costs.”

The couple, who were not at the court on Friday, brought the proceedings against News Group Newspapers (NGN) over the story in February.

Afia told Mr Justice Nicklin that the article, captioned “Elton’s Dog Did This To My Girl”, also appeared on the Sun’s website and was picked up by a number of other publishers including the Mail Online, the Metro, the Mirror and the Evening Standard.

NGN’s solicitor, Jeffrey Smele, said: “The defendant offers its apology to the claimants and is pleased that the matter has been amicably resolved.”

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