Day 276 - 09 Jul 96 - Page 37


     
     1        have spent five years of my life fighting a court case
     2        which has been extremely stressful, very exhausting and
     3        probably the most unpleasant period of my life, I should
     4        think.  I certainly have not enjoyed it.
     5
     6             Can I just add that it has been said in a number of
     7        reports, and things like that, newspaper reports, that we
     8        have got nothing to lose.  I have never said that, and that
     9        is not my view.  There is some mention somewhere else about
    10        "I could not care less attitude" as well, and it is just
    11        completely untrue.  I do care, and I would not spend five
    12        years defending something I did not believe to be true, and
    13        I would not risk getting made bankrupt to defend something
    14        that I did not believe in.  Although, obviously, I do not
    15        have much money, that does not mean that I would not care
    16        if I got made bankrupt.  Because, as I understand it, you
    17        have someone looking after all your finances and you have
    18        to be totally accountable to them.  So, obviously, that is
    19        something that I personally would not like.  I doubt many
    20        people would like it.
    21
    22             There was reference made to us being supposed to be
    23        holding a press conference and that was why McDonald's had
    24        decided to do this libel action background briefing, or
    25        whatever it was that they brought out at that time.  We
    26        have never held a press conference, and we have never sent
    27        out any notices to the effect of saying that we were going
    28        to hold one either.  It has never been my intention to hold
    29        a press conference.
    30
    31             The other thing is that Mr. Preston said that until
    32        January 1994 the company had not put out any kind of
    33        information of its own about this trial or about the
    34        action, and just to say that I can remember clearly that at
    35        the time the three other people involved decided
    36        reluctantly to apologise, it was reported in The Times and
    37        The Express that London Greenpeace had apologised to
    38        McDonald's and quite clearly there would be nobody else
    39        interested in putting that information out apart from
    40        McDonald's.  Certainly, none of the three other defendants
    41        put that information out and neither did myself or
    42        Mr. Morris.  In fact, somebody from the group actually
    43        wrote to The Daily Express and got them to amend or print a
    44        correction to say that London Greenpeace had not apologised
    45        to McDonald's.
    46
    47             Just while we are on the subject about my feelings
    48        about the court case, there was some comments put to Miss
    49        Laporte about my character the other day, and, I mean,
    50        apart from the fact that I think it is -- well, I think
    51        that if anything is to be taken from how I have behaved in
    52        court I think it should be borne in mind, firstly, that it
    53        is an extremely long case and that the vast majority of the
    54        time I have been completely calm and that apart from that
    55        if I have been somewhat short fused on occasions, then I
    56        would not like that to be taken as that being indicative of
    57        how I am normally, or in meetings, or anything like that.
    58        Because the reality is that this case has been extremely
    59        stressful and I have found it very difficult to keep up
    60        with everything that has to be done.  I am completely

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