Beckham wins libel cash against newspaper

Real Madrid player David Beckham won "substantial" libel damages from a national tabloid newspaper that falsely accused him of making hate calls to a former nanny Abbie Gibson.

Last month, the People carried a story headlined: "Becks phone fury. England ace plagues ex-nanny with hate calls. Amazing nasty message hours before Live8 gig," Scotsmail reminds.

The paper claimed the Real Madrid and England star had been "plaguing Abbie Gibson with a string of abusive messages since she quit her job four months ago". It cited a "Beckham family source".

But Beckham's solicitor, Gerrard Tyrrell, told the High Court in London that the footballer had not made any telephone call of the sort described in the article, nor had he spoken to Miss

Gibson since she resigned as the family's nanny in April. "These allegations are completely untrue," Tyrrell was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Tyrrell said the publisher of The People newspaper had agreed to pay substantial damages and court costs and to refrain from repeating the allegations. The amount of damages wasn't disclosed.

Rachel Glavin, for MGN, said that they accepted all that Tyrrell had said.

Beckham wasn't at London's High Court for the hearing. Gibson, who worked for the Beckhams for two years from May 2003, was paid $225,000 for the story, which was published in the News of the World newspaper in April.