Benjamin Pell
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Benjamin Pell (also known as "Benji the Binman")[1] is a British man who was noted for raking through the dustbins of law firms representing prominent people in search of incriminating or compromising documents that he could sell to the media.
Once a trainee lawyer,[2] he failed law exams at University College London in 1986 which he was expected to pass.[3] Pell pretended to be following a legal career for eight months until his family discovered the truth.[3]
Pell (or documents he has found) have been involved in several court cases, including ones involving Elton John, All Saints and the 'cash for questions' libel case between Mohamed Al-Fayed and Neil Hamilton.[4] He has also been prosecuted himself and was only fined £20,[5] due to his claim that he lived off a weekly £10 payment from his father despite the estimated £100,000 a year he was earning from selling documents to newspapers.[6]
He was mentioned regularly in Private Eye, which nicknamed him 'Benjy the Binman'. He was also the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary Scandal in the Bins (2000) by Victor Lewis-Smith. In 2003, he won damages of £125,000 in an out-of-court settlement from the Sunday Express which had falsely accused him of providing the IRA with information.[7][8] and slander against Mark Watts, the journalist who verbally accused him of the same act. Watts wrote a book about Pell titled The Fleet Street Sewer Rat, published in 2005.
Benjamin Pell has reportedly retired from his unusual activities. He can often be found in the Royal Courts of Justice taking notes on libel trials. He has a particular interest in libel cases and is well known to the Queen's Bench jurists.[8]
In a media law quiz conducted by the International Forum for Responsible Media on 3 January 2012, Pell had the distinction of not only scoring 100% correct answers to 49 tough media law questions, but also pointed out errors on the part of the quizmaster and unhelpful ambiguity in a number of the questions.[9]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Tim Adams "Benjamin Pell versus the Rest of the World", Granta, 87:21 (2004)
- ^ O'Neill, Brendan (2009-07-10). "BBC News: Magazine: Tabloid tactics". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8144039.stm. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
- ^ Bennetto, Jason (2000-07-28). "Man who scrapes the bottom of the barrel for profit". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/man-who-scrapes-the-bottom-of-the-barrel-for-profit-707302.html.
- ^ a b Maguire, Kevin (2000-07-27). "Muckraker who feeds off bins of the famous". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/jul/27/labour.politics.
- ^ Ungoed-Thomas, Jon (2009-07-12). "Hacked Off: Allegations of phone-hacking unpicked". The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6690054.ece.
- ^ Chittenden, Maurice (2005-03-13). "Secrets of a Fleet Street rubbish man". The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article426272.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2.
- ^ Scandal in the Bins (Television production). Associated-Rediffusion Television. 2000.
- ^ Dyer, Clare (2003-07-05). "'Binman' Benji in Bloody Sunday libel win". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jul/05/pressandpublishing.bloodysunday.
- ^ a b Bell, Matthew (2009-07-26). "Watch out Desmond, Benji the Binman is still after you". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/watch-out-desmond-benji-the-binman-is-still-after-you-1761228.html.
- ^ "Inforrm Media Law Quiz of the Year, 2011 – The Answers and the Result". The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog. 2012-01-17. http://inforrm.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/inforrm-media-law-quiz-of-the-year-2011-the-answers-and-the-result/.
[edit] External links
- Review of Scandal in the Bins (dead link)
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