The two Australian DJs who made the royal hoax call last year will not face charges.
Former 2Day FM presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian have no evidence against them to support a charge of manslaughter and any other potential prosecutions will remain private, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have stated.
The outspoken radio personalities caused an outcry after nurse and mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha committed suicide days after answering their prank call to the King Edward VII hospital in London regarding the state of Britain’s Duchess Catherine – who was being treated for acute morning sickness during the early stages of her pregnancy.
After recalling the series of events, Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime at the CPS, said: ”Having carefully reviewed the evidence currently available, we have concluded that there is no evidence to support a charge of manslaughter and that, although there is some evidence to warrant further investigation of offences under the Data Protection Act 1998, the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003, no further investigation is required because any potential prosecution would not be in the public interest.”
Mr McHaffie also added it is not possible to extradite people from Australia from the potential offences in question.
He continued: ”However misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank.
”The consequences in this case were very sad. We send our sincere condolences to Jacintha Saldanha’s family.”
Both DJs were fired from their radio show earlier this week and the station’s parent company, Southern Cross Austereo, announced on Facebook that an ”interactive” show called ‘The Bump’ would replace the original ‘Hot 30’ show.
Both Mel and Michael have received death threats and verbal abuse since the incident, and the pair made a tearful public apology on TV shortly after.