Channel 4/ITN statement

Statement relating to CPS & Cabinet Office clarifications of 'Plebgate' footage

A Channel 4/ITN spokesperson said:

We welcome the clarification and acknowledgement received today from the CPS that the footage broadcast on Channel 4 News on 18th December 2012 was not edited by the production team to change or alter the sequence of events. In an email today to the executive producer of the Channel 4 News item and Dispatches programme the Crown Prosecution Service Chief Press Officer said:

“Please be aware that the CPS has not maintained that you or Channel Four/ITV [sic] edited the footage yourselves, indeed we have not ever said that but the footage you showed is an edited version. That is that people were obscured so movement, head turns and head angles as well as any visible reactions cannot be seen, and the start and finish points were later and earlier respectively than the footage we have been shown and so it did not include footage of members of the public coming into view from the right hand side as you look out to Whitehall immediately after the incident who may have been visible from the pedestrian gate at the relevant time.  In addition there are other cameras which are helpful.”

In addition we have had sight of an email sent today from the Director General, Propriety and Ethics, Cabinet Office, Sue Gray to Andrew Mitchell MP which states:

“Further to our telephone conversation, I can confirm that the Cabinet Office provided you with a copy of the relevant CCTV footage unedited for the incident and time period in question.  The pixilation was undertaken by another government department on our behalf.”