Daily Mirror - 30.07.2019

mirror.co.uk TUESDAY 30.07.2019 DAILY MIRROR^7

DM1ST

CUFFS At court yesterday

Teen in ‘false

rape claim’ on

nuisance rap

A BRITISH teen accused of
falsely alleging that 12 men
raped her in Ayia Napa
arrived at court yesterday.
The 19-year-old is facing
a public nuisance charge.
She claimed she was
assaulted by 12 Israeli
teens, aged 15-18, at a
hotel in the Cypriot resort.
She was held on Sunday
and police sources said she
retracted her statements.
She arrived for a hearing
in Paralimni, south-east
Cyprus, hiding her face.
She will appear in court
again tomorrow. The men
all denied wrongdoing and
have now been released.
Yona Golub, who was
held, said: “We will sue her
for the anguish caused and
for libel. I am walking in
the street and people are
calling me a rapist.”
Lawyers for two others
said they also plan to sue.

BY AMY COLES

ground. One former colleague said: “Lee

was a great Mirror Chicken. He attacked

the role with real zeal and great passion.

“The newsdesk were so impressed

with his work he was used on a number

of occasions. I vividly remember him

coming to the newsroom and prancing

around still in his full outfit like a rooster.

“It’s hard to believe a man with his

past of taunting the cowardly Tories is

now such a powerful figure inside No10.”

Mr Cain, 38, made his name pushing

the pro-Leave message and will now

help Mr Johnson to get a no-deal Brexit.

It is not known how much he will be

paid, but the PM once described his own

£250,000 second salary for writing a

newspaper column as “chickenfeed” so

he should be OK.

Mr Cain was based at the Mirror HQ

in London’s Canary Wharf.

Before that he was a

reporter on the

Gloucestershire Citizen

where he worked until 2008.

After leaving Fleet Street, he

had a number of jobs,

including head of broadcast

for the Vote Leave campaign. Mr Cain

later joined DEFRA.  He was hired by

Theresa May in 2017. Just months later

Mr Johnson poached him as his chief

media spokesman at the Foreign Office.

In reports at the weekend the former

newsman, known as “Caino”, was called

an “evil genius” inside No10.

The ruthless political spin doctor role

was satirised in hit BBC comedy The

Thick of It, where Peter Capaldi played

foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker. The

character was said to be

partly influenced by Alastair

Campbell, Tony Blair’s

communications chief.

The Mirror chicken was

hatched for the 1997 election

when PM John Major kept

ducking debates. It has been

sticking its beak in where it’s not wanted

ever since to expose political cowardice.

And there seems to be no shortage of

it still. Mr Johnson yesterday chickened

out of facing the public in Edinburgh

after meeting First Minister Nicola Stur-

geon. He was jeered by an angry crowd

when he arrived and later left by the

back door rather then face them.

[email protected]

@andylines

VOICE OF THE MIRROR: PAGE 8

EXCLUSIVE

BY ANDY LINES Chief Reporter

and STEVE MYALL

Grab probe dropped

AXED Mark Field

THE inquiry into a former

Foreign Office minister who

grabbed a female Greenpeace

protester has been quietly

dropped by Boris Johnson.

Mark Field was suspended

last month after he was filmed

Right Carrie on at No

BEAU-JO Carrie

BORIS Johnson moved into

Downing Street last night with

girlfriend Carrie Symonds – the

first unmarried couple to live in

the official residence together.

The PM, 55, and 31-year-old

Carrie will occupy the four-bed

grabbing Janet Barker by the

neck as she attempted to

disrupt a black-tie dinner at

London’s Mansion House.

But a Cabinet Office probe

has been closed after he was

sacked in the PM’s reshuffle.

flat above No11. But officials say

she will have no staff, unlike the

wives of many former premiers.

Chancellor Sajid Javid, a dad

of four, looks likely to decline

No10’s cramped two-bed flat

and stay at his Fulham home.

Mirror chicken is

hired by Boris to

push his no-deal

IT started from humble beginnings,

but the Mirror Chicken has found

itself on top of the pecking order as

it squawks the corridors of power...

After years of pursuing cowardly

politicians, our brave bird has been hired

by one of those very figures – Boris

Johnson – to be his chief spin doctor.

Lee Cain, who as our chicken taunted

David Cameron and his Tory chums as

they ducked questions in the run-up to

the 2010 general election, has landed the

Director of Communications job.

At one point he was pictured being led

away by police as Mr Cameron and his

wife Samantha looked on in the back-

NEW HIRE PM Boris

COURT Paul Bussetti

Grenfell fire

mockery film

‘was just sick’

A MAN who filmed a
cardboard model of
Grenfell Tower burning on
a bonfire called it a “stupid
moment”, a court heard.
Paul Bussetti, 46, is
accused of sending a
“grossly offensive” video on
WhatsApp and causing
“menacing” footage to be
uploaded on YouTube.
He said to police of the
video: “It was just sick.”
Prosecutor Philip Stott
told Westminster magis-
trates the effigy, set alight
on November 3 last year,
had characters “hanging
off it as though falling”.
Bussetti of South
Norwood, South-East
London, does not deny
posting the video but
disputes it was offensive to
send it to private groups.
The 2017 blaze at Gren-
fell Tower in West London
killed 72 people.

BY MATTHEW YOUNG

POULTRY

IN MOTION

Lee as chicken

taunting Sam &

David Cameron,

ringed

MALCOLM CLUCKER

Lee Cain, left, and The Thick of It spin chief Tucker

NEW SPIN DOCTOR

AT NUMBER HEN...