Baby P's natural father will learn whether he has won his £130,000 libel claim against the People after it wrongly labelled him a child rapist
The natural father of Baby P is to learn the outcome of his £130,000 damages claim against the publishers of a Sunday newspaper for printing "one of the gravest libels imaginable".
At a recent high court hearing in London a judge was told Peter Connelly's father, who cannot be named for legal reasons and has been referred to as KC, was wrongly accused in the People of being a sex offender convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl.
The newspaper's publishers, MGN Ltd, later apologised and offered to pay damages.
However the offer came late and was not enough to compensate the father for the suffering and distress the "completely false" reports had caused, the father's QC, James Dingemans, told Mr Justice Bean. The judgment is due on Monday.
The allegations were contained in two paragraphs in a crime supplement about Baby P's mother, who had separated from KC.
They appeared in the People on 19 September 2010 in an article entitled: "Tortured to death as mum turned a blind eye".
Baby P was 17 months old when he was found in a blood-splattered cot at his mother's home in Tottenham, north London, in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries.
Tracey Connelly was jailed in 2009 after admitting causing or allowing his death.
Her boyfriend Steven Barker and their lodger, Jason Owens, Barker's brother, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of the same charge.
Dingemans said the allegations about the natural father in the wake of the Baby P tragedy were "shocking and appalling".
However MGN treated him "as if he didn't really matter".
Heather Rogers QC, appearing for MGN, told the high court: "This was a mistake that MGN regrets and it has apologised to the claimant, and I repeat that apology on its behalf in this court."
However she denied KC had been badly treated, or that MGN had conducted any kind of "campaign" against him, or dismissed his legitimate complaint.