Digital clues to Sorrell libel case

By Martin Shankleman
Business reporter, BBC News, at the High Court

Sir Martin Sorrell is one of the UK's highest paid businessmen

In the old days, the killer clues could have been a fingerprint or a speck of hair.

Nowadays, the vital evidence is likely to be the address book in Outlook Express, or a missing memory stick labelled the "silver bullet".

The libel trial initiated by advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell has revealed how quickly legal actions have been propelled to the forefront of the digital age.

Firstly, the trial is thought to be the first ever involving claims of a libellous blog.

In this case, allegations of a nasty and false commentary on Sir Martin Sorrell which, in the businessman's words, accused him of everything from fraud and money-laundering to deception and links to the Mafia.

But the most sensational aspect has been an e-mail containing a "grossly intrusive" computer image, depicting Sir Martin and a woman executive at an Italian subsidiary, Daniela Weber.

It was sent to staff as a fake corporate e-mail entitled: "Four steps to boost your career at WPP".

Everyone accepts the e-mails are false. The issue is, who was responsible for sending them out, and how to prove it?

Electronic footprints

Sir Martin claims that two former executives from his Italian empire, Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli, are guilty.

"They were simply in it together," according to his lawyer, Desmond Browne QC.

It is claimed that Mr Tinelli was motivated by his hostility to Sir Martin and Ms Weber, whom he apparently labelled as the "mad dwarf and nympho schizo" .

To back up his claims, Sir Martin employed private investigators to search for electronic footprints of the culprits.

They retrieved records from various laptops which, together with data from internet service providers, helped track e-mail traffic and the creation of the blogs.

They found that the computer image had been generated on an email account using a false name - JP Stevens - at Yahoo France.

The libellous blog was sent around the world using what was called "anonymising software", covering up the origins of the message.

This software rapidly changed the message's IP address point so it showed up variously as Nuremberg, San Francisco, Milan and New York.

'Silver bullet'

The judge also heard that examinations of laptops revealed every aspect of their usage:

• when a USB memory stick was inserted
• when a particular file was saved
• the number of times someone trawled the internet
• when a particular site was added to the favourite list.

Intriguingly, a vital memory stick belonging to Mr Tinelli, which has been referred to as the "silver bullet", has gone missing.

As a result of the forensic evidence, both Mr Tinelli and Mr Bennati have conceded that the infamous blog could have been created by someone within their organisation, Fullsix.

But they emphatically deny they were responsible and have pledged to discipline the authors if they are uncovered.

Giving evidence, Sir Martin dismissed the apology as "weasel words".

Both men are set to give evidence when the trial goes into second week on Monday.