Bullying Navy captain faces £500k legal bill after judge throws out privacy case
A FORMER Royal Navy captain whose ‘shameful’ bullying of junior officers saw him thrown off his ship has lost a £300,000 privacy claim.
David Axon, 50, sued the Ministry of Defence, claiming his human rights had been breached after information about his appalling behaviour was leaked.
Colleagues had queued up to complain about him, and top brass feared the ship would be ineffective in battle.
He was forced to leave HMS Somerset after an internal investigation concluded his position was ‘untenable’.
But when his disgrace was reported in a newspaper, Axon sued his former employer for breach of confidence and misuse of private information.
Yesterday, a High Court judge threw his case out, ruling that the story was in the public interest, leaving Axon with estimated legal costs of up to £500,000.
Mr Justice Nicol said Axon ‘did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy’ over information reported in the Press, and that the MoD mole suspected of leaking the story did not owe him any duty to keep it secret.
Axon was appointed commanding officer of the frigate HMS Somerset, which has a crew of 185, in June 2003.
The following May, the ship was sent to the Persian Gulf for six months. How- ever, towards the end of the tour, complaints of bullying reached Navy commanders, and following an inquiry a Rear Admiral ordered Axon to surrender his command.
Four days after he left the boat in December 2004, an article appeared in The Sun revealing the scandal.
Axon only decided to sue in 2013 when it emerged that the newspaper had obtained the information after paying a Ministry of Defence official. MoD press officer Bettina Jordan-Barber, who had access to top-secret material, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and was jailed for 12 months in January last year.
She was one of 30 public officials convicted under Operation Elveden, Scotland Yard’s inquiry into Press stories bought for cash.
Documents submitted to the courts by The Sun revealed Jordan-Barber was paid £5,000 for the story – part of £100,000 she received from the paper between 2004 and 2012.
At the High Court, Axon admitted he had behaved badly, saying: ‘I accept that I bullied my officers, to my eternal shame.’
He added: ‘It was humiliating and embarrassing to realise I had let my officers down and my ship down.
‘The impact on me at the time was dramatic. But, for me, the real damage was the impact on my ship’s company.’
He said the articles destroyed his career, and claimed the MoD was liable for Jordan-Barber’s breach of confidence and misuse of private information. He also said his right to privacy under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached.
But Mr Justice Nicol said that although Jordan-Barber owed a duty to preserve the confidentiality of information she received in the course of her work, ‘that was a duty she owed to the Crown or the MoD’ – not to Axon.
A spokesman for The Sun said: ‘The judge found that this claimant did not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in what The Sun published.
‘The judge also observed that publication was in the public interest. We will now be seeking our legal costs.’
‘I bullied my officers, to my eternal shame’