Day 246 - 09 May 96 - Page 29
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is their case. That is their pleaded
2 case, not in so many words but they have said they were
3 forced to do this to defend themselves from attack.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Part of our case is that if, as they have
6 indicated, which is not true, they wrote to us many times
7 to try and establish the facts to avoid a court case, part
8 of the thing they could have done, we have shown there, was
9 activated by malice. One of the things they could have
10 done is responded by dealing with these criticisms through
11 their massive advertising budget.
12
13 MS. STEEL: It is the actual issues rather than attacking us
14 personally.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not put that to the witness and then
17 I can see where you are going.
18
19 MS. STEEL: Right. (To the witness): Mr. Preston, instead of
20 putting out leaflets attacking us, you were quite capable
21 of putting out leaflets and press releases giving very
22 detailed information about exactly what these practices
23 were which you say your company carries out rather than
24 what you claim are lies. You were quite capable of doing
25 that, were you not?
26 A. We did. We did this.
27
28 Q. There was no need, was there, to put out leaflets and press
29 releases attacking myself and Mr. Morris and other critics
30 as liars?
31 A. You and Mr. Morris have never been attacked personally
32 ever.
33
34 Q. The leaflet refers to a court case and the Defendants, so
35 it is clearly about us; is it not?
36 A. Well, you are the Defendants.
37
38 Q. I ask you again: There was no need to put out any leaflets
39 or press releases attacking us as liars?
40 A. Well, the press releases that we put out, the ones we
41 put together in the first part of 1994, were not put out
42 until you yourselves put out via the McLibel Campaign that
43 which you said.
44
45 I did what I did in response to what you did. Nothing had
46 been done prior to that. I did a press release because you
47 did a press release, something to balance it going to the
48 same people. I did not think sending this -- I certainly
49 would not have thought sending this to the BBC or The Times
50 would have sufficed in their terms. It does not explain
51 anything at all about why we were going to court. It makes
52 some statements but it does not say why we are saying any
53 of this.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have to say I think the tray liner in 1990
56 is a big red herring,, I am not suggesting you introduced
57 it as that.
58
59 What we are concentrating on is what happened between 14th
60 March or thereabouts and late May 1994 and I think what is
