Sir Philip Green in new court battle over harassment claims

Topshop owner Sir Philip Green is taking the Daily Telegraph to court over allegations the UK newspaper made in October that the retail mogul had sexually and racially harassed his employees.

A judgement handed down yesterday by Justice Warby revealed that Sir Philip filed an application in December to uncover the sources of the Telegraph’s story, and that he is seeking damages for the negative publicity that the accusations caused, City AM reported. The court date is scheduled on February 4.

In October, the Telegraph revealed that it had conducted an eight month investigation following allegations of bullying, intimidation and sexual harassment against an unnamed person at Arcadia. The Court of Appeal issued an interim injunction preventing the newspaper from publishing Sir Philip's name, but Lord Peter Hain called out Sir Philip Green days later in the House of Lords, saying that it was his “duty” to exercise his parliamentary privilege in naming the retail tycoon.

After naming Sir Philip, it was revealed that Hain was a paid adviser to the Telegraph’s law firm, Gordon Dadds. Hain denied that the firm was the source of his information.

Sir Philip Green accuses the Telegraph of colluding with Lord Hain

Arcadia’s lawyers said that the Telegraph “directly or indirectly participated, procured, colluded in and/or facilitated the provision of the information regarding Sir Philip’s identity to Lord Hain for the purpose of it being disclosed under the cover of parliamentary privilege.”

Hain told City AM: “This is a malevolent lie to divert attention from the allegations of sexual harassment and bullying at issue.”

Responding to the claims in October, Sir Philip and his company Arcadia released a statement saying: “[We are] take accusations and grievances from employees very seriously and in the event that one is raised, it is thoroughly investigated."

"Arcadia employs more than 20,000 people and in common with many large businesses sometimes receives formal complaints from employees.

"In some cases these are settled with the agreement of all parties and their legal advisers. These settlements are confidential so I cannot comment further on them."

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