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PCC targets Sunday Express over Dunblane allegations

This article is more than 15 years old

The Press Complaints Commission has launched an investigation after the Scottish edition of the Sunday Express ran a front page story alleging survivors of the Dunblane massacre "shamed" the memory of their dead friends by boasting about drunken nights out on social networking websites.

The article, titled "Anniversary shame of Dunblane: internet boasts of sex, drink and violence as youngsters hit 18" appeared on March 8. It claimed that a number of the those who witnessed the massacre first-hand had "posted shocking blogs and photographs of themselves on the internet, 13 years after being sheltered from public view in the aftermath of the atrocity".

Sixteen children and their teacher were murdered when gunman Thomas Hamilton burst into the gym at Dunblane Primary School and opened fire on March 13 1996. Hamilton then turned the gun on himself.

New laws banning the private holding of handguns were introduced the following year.

A spokesman for the PCC told MediaGuardian.co.uk that the press watchdog had received more than 30 complaints, two of which were from people mentioned in the article, and had launched an investigation under sections one and three of the editors code - a voluntary set of principles newspaper editors have agreed to – which cover breaches of privacy and accuracy.

The Express article highlighted posts to a Bebo account by an individual who was injured in the massacre, which it claimed showed them making "rude gestures" in pictures and boasting of "drunken nights out".

The article drew criticism on blog and social networking sites, with some commentators calling it a "new low" for the newspaper. The Sunday Express appears to have since pulled the article from its website.

Express Newspapers, publisher of the Scottish edition of the Sunday Express, had not returned a request for comment at the time of publishing.

The editor of the Daily Express, Peter Hill, left the board of the PCC last year following front page and high court apologies from Express Newspapers titles the Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express and Daily Star Sunday over a string of false stories about the disappearance of four-year-old Madeline McCann, which resulted in payments of £550,000 in damages to the McCann family.

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