Daily Mirror hit by fresh pay-off row

NEWSPAPER group Trinity Mirror is understood to have paid Des Kelly, the former acting editor of the Daily Mirror, £400,000 after he threatened to sue for wrongful dismissal.

The award is the second controversial payment the company has made to former Mirror executives in recent months.

It paid the newspaper's former editor Piers Morgan £1.7m, made up of salary, pension and share options after he had been sacked in May.

Trinity Mirror is understood to have been advised that to withhold payment, it would have to prove gross misconduct or reckless dishonesty against Morgan.

Kelly was deputy editor under Morgan and took over when he was dismissed. However, Kelly left the newspaper when Richard Wallace was appointed editor in June. Kelly unsuccessfully applied for the editor's post himself.

Trinity Mirror declined to comment.

The contoversy comes on the heels of last week's granting of bail to former Daily Mirror share tipsters Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell by Southwark Crown Court.

They are alleged to have tipped shares that they owned from August 1999 to February 2000. Terry Shepherd, a private investor, also appeared in the dock.

All three are charged with 'conspiring to create a misleading impression' over the value of investments, in breach of the Financial Services Act.

The judge granted them unconditional bail to reappear in court on November 26 for a plea and directions hearing.