Petronella Wyatt's VERY unlucky mother

Today an article appeared on the Daily Mail's website by Petronella Wyatt, in which she told the tale of how her mother had her arm broken by a deranged cyclist on 16th August. A traumatic event for the old dear, to be sure.



Strangely though, its not the first time ill fortune has befallen Petronella's mother under the wheels of a bicycle, she has previously had an arm broken in February of 2010




And indeed other than the dates of the incident and a reference to Olympic cyclists in the more recent article, they are rather similar.

So far all my attempts to highlight this in the comments section have not been published by the moderators, whether I include a link to the original article or not. I've emailed the editor and await a reply.

Update 11 September 2012 - I received an email from the PCC, I hadn't made a formal complaint but did make them aware of the article

Thank you for your email.

We are currently investigating this article following an earlier complaint. We will let you know the outcome of our investigation when we can.

Yours sincerely
Simon Yip
Complaints Coordinator

Update 13 September 2012 - I have received an email from the Mail on Sunday

Thank you for writing to us about Petronella Wyatt’s article last Sunday. A number of people have commented on some similarities with a previous article she wrote on the same subject in 2010.

The facts are that Miss Wyatt’s mother has suffered three distressing incidents involving cyclists. The first took place in 2010 when she broke her arm. Then on August 16, 2012, there was another incident when she broke an arm again. Finally came the third episode last week when she suffered further injuries.

In addition, Miss Wyatt herself was mugged by a person, apparently part of a gang, who grabbed her handbag and made off on a bicycle. This incident took place in 2008 but, regrettably due to an editing mistake, last Sunday’s article said it was in 2012.

Of course there is no reason why Miss Wyatt should not write about these incidents and express her honestly-held opinions.

We have pointed out to her that some of her phrases were similar to ones she wrote in 2010. She says that may not be surprising when she is writing about the same subject but, nonetheless, we have drawn it to her attention.

Thank you for taking the trouble of writing to us.

Eleanor Swainston

PA to John Wellington

Managing Editor

PA to Gerard Greaves

Deputy Editor

The Mail on Sunday

The 'writing about the same subject' line is a bit of a stretch, some of it is almost verbatim from an article written over two years previously, I'm not so sure the editor will be impressed he's paying twice for the same article. Besides which it begs the question, what does a person have to do to be seriously injured by cyclists three times in less than three years?