Naomi Campbell at The Hague

"The big PR winner? The UN’s special war crimes tribunal," piffled Wallis in PR Week magazine. "As one of the UN staff told us, ‘90 minutes on the witness stand by Naomi Campbell has given the issue of blood diamonds and the war crimes alleged against Charles Taylor more coverage worldwide than it’s had combined in the three years the trial has been under way.’" Nice work for someone who was effectively accused of lying to the court by two other witnesses.

Then again, if Campbell was so concerned about raising awareness, why did she appeal successfully to ban photographers and TV crews capturing her arrival at The Hague? "It was to try to protect a solemn venue like the war crimes tribunal from suffering the kind of outrageous paparazzi madness that can unfortunately hound any public appearance by Naomi Campbell," wrote Wallis, his nose expanding with every word.

His aversion to "outrageous paparazzi madness" will come as a surprise to Eye readers who remember how the "Wolfman" ran the People between 1998 and 2003. In 2002, Eye 1047 noted that the paper had breached PCC rules on privacy by running nude pictures of Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox and her husband relaxing in a hot tub on their honeymoon. Wallis, who sat on the PCC’s code of conduct committee at the time, claimed he did not understand its rules and was let off with a slap on the wrist. The soon-to-be News of the Screws executive editor also railed in 2002 against "mindless… privacy legislation on intrusive photography".

"Prepared to lie on oath in court to a judge"
In PR Week, Wallis said he ensured Campbell "soberly, demurely and appropriately for the occasion" and "as advised… kept strictly to the facts she could remember from 13 years ago".

Honesty and Miss Campbell are hardly close acquaintances, however – as a Wallis editorial in the People noted in 2002: "This was the kind of woman who was prepared to lie on oath in court to a judge. She did not just have a fragile hold on the truth – she had no hold on it at all."

She’s not the only one. Eight years later, Wallis concludes that "the consensus of the press pack… was that [Campbell] had come across as honest and persuasive" during the trial.

Examples of that press pack consensus? The Sun reported that "only 3 percent of people believe Naomi Campbell told the truth", while a Guardianfootball columnist compared her "narcissistic demeanour" to those of "certain Premier League luminaries".

Wallis left News International in 2009 and is now the fourth of Murdoch’s senior executives to exchange Wapping for a career in spin. Funny, isn’t it, how tame these fearless former editors can be when there’s a huge pay hike on offer?