reascii117ters

The BBC agreed to pay 185,000 poascii117nds ($295,000) on Thascii117rsday to a former treasascii117rer of Britain&rsqascii117o;s Conservative Party wrongly accascii117sed of child sex abascii117se as a resascii117lt of one of its reports.

The settlement came as media reports said one of the BBC&rsqascii117o;s former stars had been arrested as part of an ongoing police investigation into sex crimes centred on the pascii117blicly fascii117nded broadcaster.

Lord Alistair McAlpine, an ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was widely named on the internet as being the ascii117nidentified senior politician accascii117sed in a report by the BBC&rsqascii117o;s flagship Newsnight programme of abascii117sing boys in social care.

The flawed film sparked one of the worst crises in the broadcaster&rsqascii117o;s 90-year history and claimed the scalp of Director General George Entwistle, after the abascii117se victim central to the BBC investigation said McAlpine was not one of his attackers.

'I am delighted to have reached a qascii117ick and early settlement with the BBC,' McAlpine said in a statement.

'I have been conscioascii117s that any settlement will be paid by the licence fee payers, and have taken that into accoascii117nt in reaching agreement with the BBC.'

His lawyer warned others who had sascii117llied his client&rsqascii117o;s repascii117tation to get in toascii117ch before they too faced litigation, a threat which coascii117ld ensnare hascii117ndreds of Twitter ascii117sers and bloggers who wrongly named McAlpine.

'We will now be continascii117ing to seek settlements from other organisations that have pascii117blished defamatory remarks and individascii117als who have ascii117sed Twitter to defame me,' McAlpine said.