Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 19
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You do not have to go over the same ground
3 again and again.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: That is infiltration.
6
7 MS. STEEL: In tab 7, this is a letter from Ms. Edie Bensilum,
8 Regional Communications Manager, dated 24th October 1994,
9 to Mr. Chris Carson. Just to point out that this is in
10 reply to a fax that Chris Carson sent to Mike Love. She
11 says, at number 1: "Helen Steel and Dave Morris were not
12 chosen..."
13
14 Then she says: "In December 1984, McDonald's solicitors
15 wrote to London Greenpeace expressing concern about the
16 leaflet in question" -- which is completely untrue, by
17 anybody's standards, even by McDonald's standards.
18
19 Then it goes on to expand on that. But that was the
20 important part to draw your attention to.
21
22 In tab 13, there is an article which is an interview with
23 Paul Preston, which appeared in The Times of
24 21st October 1995. We asked Mr. Preston about this and, as
25 far as I remember, he confirmed that he had said it.
26
27 It says, in the third column: "A typical week of Preston
28 would not be complete without a visit to the High Court
29 where the infamous McLibel case has dragged into its second
30 year."
31
32 Mr. Preston is quoted as saying: "We went to the High Court
33 after 10 years of trying to get this thing sorted out
34 amicably. We went to do only one thing: establish the
35 truth."
36
37 That is clearly a lie. McDonald's did not go to the High
38 Court after 10 years of trying to get it sorted out
39 amicably. They issued writs in 1990, which -----
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. You can just sort of mark these down,
42 because I can see where you would go next.
43
44 MS. STEEL: OK. There is a similar statement made by
45 Mike Love, which appears in tab 14, in a letter to
46 The Scotsman, dated 28th December 1995, where Mike Love
47 complains about the article which appeared in The Scotsman
48 being inaccurate and misleading, and then promptly says:
49 "McDonald's only brought this case after 10 years of
50 trying to settle the matter out of court" -- which is
51 obviously a blatant lie.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You say that was obviously the Company lying,
54 and it was false.
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56 MS. STEEL: Yes -- and they knew it was false. I mean, even
57 using the kind of weakest argument, which is the one that
58 they are putting forward, about the different leaflet that
59 was written in 1984 and then writing to the group about
60 that, even when they adopt that as their argument, the fact
