How party fracas soured relations with the Standard

Ken Livingstone first showed hostility towards the Evening Standard after we reported allegations that he had been involved in a drunken fracas at a house party in May 2002.

The Mayor was at the party with his partner Emma Beal - then pregnant with the couple's first child - when the incident broke out.

Witnesses claimed Mr Livingstone assaulted a guest, Evening Standard journalist Robin Hedges, causing him to fall down a stairwell. Mr Hedges required a brain scan and was off work for four weeks with a serious back injury.

The Mayor, who admitted having drunk three glasses of sauvignon blanc wine, was also accused of manhandling Ms Beal during a row and of leaving the scene before police arrived.

He described the allegations as "untrue" and claimed an Evening Standard story reporting the incident was "one of the most inaccurate and distorted articles"

he had ever seen about himself. Lib-Dem members of the Assembly reported the Mayor to the official watchdog, the Standards Board for England, for allegedly bringing his office into disrepute.

The year-long inquiry cleared Mr Livingstone "on the balance of probabilities" because the board's investigator could not establish the full facts from conflicting evidence.

There were three eye-witness accounts about the party fracas. Neighbour Stuart Williams said he saw the Mayor grab Ms Beal and then get into a heated argument with Mr Hedges. Another party guest said the Mayor rowed in the street with his partner. And nurse Elizabeth Rose, who lived below the flat, heard Mr Hedges hit the ground.

In addition, Mr Hedges himself gave evidence, disputing the Mayor's claim that his fall was just "an accident".