Pink News and Julie Bindel issue joint statement after legal case: “The article made a number of serious allegations of misconduct and Pink News accepts that if the allegations were understood to refer to Julie, they would be wholly untrue.”

Pink News has issued an apology to journalist Julie Bindel after publishing an interview piece in May 2020 with writer Amy Dyess which was framed as a story of a woman escaping from the “gender critical cult”.

In the piece extremely serious criminal allegations of sexual abuse, offers to find Dyess a wife in order to keep her in the UK, and allegations that cult members coerced and controlled Dyess were made.

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Today, in a joint statement with Julie Bindel, Pink News said: “The article made a number of serious allegations of misconduct and Pink News accepts that if the allegations were understood to refer to Julie, they would be wholly untrue.”

Pink News added that it “is sorry for the distress the article caused.”

The LGBT+ news site said it had taken down the article and will not be republishing it.

Pink News added that it had revised its editorial processes.

Today, as the statement confirmed, Pink News removed the original article by reporter Vic Parsons and replaced it with a link through to the joint statement.

The original piece – categorised as a “Trans” story – was headlined: “The ‘gender critical’ feminist movement is a cult that grooms, controls and abuses, according to a lesbian who managed to escape”.

Julie Bindel is a journalist, a writer for Lesbian and Gay News and a prominent feminist campaigner.

This is the full joint statement Pink News and Julie Bindel have published today on the news website:

“PinkNews and Julie Bindel are pleased to confirm that they have settled the case over the article PinkNews published on 17 May 2020, which chronicled a young American’s account of their recruitment to and time involved with a ‘gender critical cult’. The article made a number of serious allegations of misconduct and PinkNews accepts that if the allegations were understood to refer to Julie, they would be wholly untrue.

“Julie Bindel accepts that PinkNews published the article without intending to make any such reference to her. PinkNews is sorry for the distress the article caused. It has taken down the article and will not be republishing it. PinkNews has revised its editorial processes.

“We are all happy that this matter has been resolved.”