John Kay

John Michael Kay (28 October 1943 – 7 May 2021) was a British journalist who worked for The Sun newspaper for several decades. In 1977 he killed his wife, was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. He was twice named 'Reporter of the Year' in the British Press Awards.

Early life Kay was born in Golders Green, London on 28 October 1943. Kay's father, Ernest Kay, was managing editor of the London Evening News, and his mother was Martha ( Pilkington). The younger Kay was educated at Bootham School in York and continued his studies at Durham University (Hatfield College), where he served as Editor of Palatinate during Michaelmas term of 1963, having previously been News Editor.

His time as Editor was eventful. He was accused of falsely reporting a profit to the Student Union for one edition of the paper when it had in reality made a loss, but was ultimately cleared of deliberately making the claim. An article he produced on 'black magic ceremonies' also attracted controversy, and was described as a "nasty piece of pornography" by the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the university. Despite this, the Student Representatives' Council (SRC), responsible for publishing Palatinate, gave Kay a vote of confidence and allowed him to continue as Editor, while condemning the offending article. Twice named 'Reporter of the Year' in the British Press Awards, a Press Gazette feature in November 2005 identified him as the sixteenth most influential British journalist since the war.

The Press Gazette reported in November 2008 that Kay had been persuaded to continue working on The Sun past retirement on a full-time freelance basis but on the same salary as before.

In February 2012, Kay was reported by BBC News to be one of eight people arrested as part of the Operation Elveden investigation into alleged bribes to police and civil servants. Kay was cleared at the Old Bailey in March 2015 of paying a total of £100,000 over a decade to a Ministry of Defence member of staff for assistance on stories relating to the army. The Sun though, did pay the money to his source, Bettina Jordan-Barber, who was jailed for 12 months in January for misconduct in public office. Kay left The Sun in 2015 and retired.

In 1979, he married his Spanish-born wife, Mercedes, a PA for the Iberia airline. After he severed all ties with The Sun, he cared for her at their home in North London; she died in 2017 from cancer. Returning home after the conference, Kay said he felt unable to resign because it would harm his career, but knew he was not capable of functioning as Industrial Editor either. He said that he announced to Harue that he was going to kill himself. After drowning her, he said he attempted to kill himself through several methods including hanging, jumping out of a window, and finally driving his car head-on into a bridge. and Sun editor Larry Lamb wrote a letter to St Albans Crown Court to say there would always be a job open for Kay with the newspaper. and a Daily Telegraph obituary described him as the "brilliant Sun chief reporter famed for his scoops, exposés and effortless mastery of tabloid-speak", all without touching on his manslaughter conviction (The Sun and Evening Standard added mentions of the killing to the obituaries after initial publication).