Paper apologises for slur

Football star Paul Gascoigne’s former wife Sheryl yesterday accepted “substantial” damages over a reference to her in a newspaper comment column as a “gold digger”.

The High Court in London was told that the description was included in a column published in the Daily Mail in September last year.

Martin Wood, for Associated Newspapers, told the judge: “The defendant wishes to apologise to Ms Gascoigne.” The amount of damages was not announced.