Stuart HigginsStuart Higgins (born c. 1956)[1] is a British public relations consultant and former newspaper editor. In 1972 Higgins left school in Kingswood, on the outskirts of Bristol, and began his career as a reporter at the South West News, an agency founded by Roland Arblaster.[1][2] He began working for The Sun in 1979 as their West Country reporter.[3] He was arrested in 1982 by the police after being found with a Sun photographer "testing security" at Highgrove House, home of Charles, Prince of Wales.[1] At one point, Kelvin MacKenzie printed Higgins' direct phone number in The Sun, billed him as the "human sponge" and asked readers to call Higgins to "get things off their chest".[4][1] In 1994, Higgins succeeded MacKenzie as editor of the newspaper.[5] In 1996, Higgins wrote a front-page story about an intimate video purporting to feature Diana, Princess of Wales, with James Hewitt. The video turned out to be a hoax.[1] Higgins left The Sun in June 1998.[3] On 11 November 2003, Labour MP Clive Soley, using parliamentary privilege, alleged that News International had paid £500,000 'hush money' to a female employee who had accused Higgins of sexual harassment during his time at The Sun.[6] Soley also accused Rebekah Wade (now Brooks), then the newspaper's editor, of writing a threatening letter to the MP to discourage him from researching the issue.[7][5] Higgins subsequently set up his own public relations company,[5] but sold the company in 2007.[8] In February 2013, it was reported that Higgins was in Pretoria, South Africa, assisting athlete Oscar Pistorius, accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in dealing with the press.[4] References
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