FORMER Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie yesterday revealed "I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now" for the paper's infamous coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.
Speaking at a business lunch, he told more than 100 guests he had only apologised to the people of Liverpool because the newspaper's owner Rupert Murdoch had ordered him to.
And he insisted the Sun had only been reporting "the truth" when it accused Liverpool fans caught in the terrace crush of urinating on the dead and stealing from bodies. Mr MacKenzie was guest speaker at the annual lunch of Newcastle law firm Mincoffs LLP.
A source told the Daily Post: "There was a question and answer session and someone asked him if he went to Liverpool much.
"He said: 'All I did wrong there was tell the truth. There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster.
'The only thing different we did was put it under the headline 'The Truth'.
'I went on the World at One the next day and apologised. I only did that because Rupert Murdoch told me to. I wasn't sorry then and I'm not sorry now because we told the truth.' "
The source added: "He then compared people in the city to animal rights protesters and told an anecdote about a time when he visited the city and got in a taxi.
"He said the driver was talking about The Sun and said if he ever had Kelvin McKenzie in his taxi he would kill him.
"Then he said if the things he had said today got out he was sure the whole thing would blow up again."
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