Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 19


     
     1
     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.
    55
    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

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