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
