Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 18
1 informal support of lawyers and this was formalised with
2 the appointment of the City law firm and two specialists
3 libel barristers to advise them."
4
5 Now, this is -----
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have that point.
8
9 MS. STEEL: Yes. Obviously, we would argue that that is
10 deceptive and that McDonald's knew that it was not true,
11 that we were not represented apart for the specific appeal
12 hearing.
13
14 Then the next point: "The group have suggested that
15 McDonald's used spies to infiltrate the group. It is
16 important to note that their meetings were advertised as
17 public meetings, and in order to establish precisely who
18 was responsible for distributing the lies in the leaflet
19 these meetings were indeed attended on McDonald's behalf."
20
21 The statement "The group have suggested that McDonald's
22 used spies to infiltrate the group" is designed to make
23 people think that the Defendants are lying, that McDonald's
24 did not use spies to infiltrate the group. When we asked
25 Mr. Preston about this, I cannot remember the exact quote,
26 but he would not accept the use of the word "infiltrate".
27
28 Just to point out that when, in fact, McDonald's disclosed
29 the letters which had been sent to the firms of inquiry
30 agents, asking them to investigate London Greenpeace, we
31 all saw that the very word used by McDonald's
32 was "infiltration", that they were asking the Company to
33 infiltrate London Greenpeace; and that was accepted by
34 Mr. Nicholson on day 259, page 17, line 47.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
37
38 MS. STEEL: As we know, they did not just attend the so-called
39 public meetings, which were not even always advertised to
40 the public.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Yes. They attended -----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not sure I am terribly impressed by
45 that, because it may take us back to the leaflet which does
46 advertise them as public meetings. But you have the point
47 anyway that what I suppose you would say is that this
48 letter creates the wrong impression, because it suggests
49 that all the meetings they went to were public meetings,
50 whereas most of them were in the offices at
51 Caledonian Road.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Also, they came to special letter-answering
54 sessions, they attended a party -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know all that. You do not have to
57 elaborate on that. I have got the point.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: They followed people home, they got people's
60 addresses by devious means.
