Bob Jones shouts for jury after nil verdict

Press, 7 December 1985, Page 1

Bob Jones shouts for jury after nil verdict

PA Auckland A relieved Bob Jones poured drinks for the jury in his Wellington apartment yesterday afternoon, only hours after the end of a three-week defamation action brought by the former Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon.

Mr Jones held an impromptu celebration for at least eight of the jurors after they had decided hot to award damages against him in the $600,000 defamation action.

In Auckland,' Sir Robert Srofessed surprise at Mr ones’s hospitality. “It is not the kind of thing I would have expected, I have to say.”. He would not say whether he would pursue the matter with his lawyers.

“What can one do?” he asked. “I do not know. I really cannot comment on that until I know more.”

Mr Jones, for his part, defended his decision to have most of the jurors back to his downtown office after the trial for a party, complete with trays of delicacies from a Chinese restaurant 15 floors below.

“It is perfectly legitimate,” he said. “Once it is

all over, it is over.

“I found it interesting to talk to the jurors and learn where mistakes were made and where they were unimpressed by things.” Sir Robert described as a moral victory the decision which found he had been defamed by published comments by Mr Jones. “The important thing is that there is no suggestion that the allegations had any • truth in them,” he said. “That is important, not justfor me but for the S.I.S. and the whole system.” Although the Court had not ruled as to costs, Sir Robert predicted the trial would be very expensive for him.

Even though the defamatory comments had been made while Sir Robert was Prime Minister, he would pay the costs of his legal counsel.

“That is entirely my responsibility,” he said. “It has

nothing to do with the State.”

Mr Jones said that, irrespective of the Court’s decision as to costs, he would make money from the case. A number of Ele, including some mal members of Parliament and journalists, had taken $lO wagers that he would lose, he said.

He was generous in his praise of Sir Robert’s counsel, Mr Des Dalgety, whom he described as “an absolute master.”

“He is certainly a superb advocate and he reminds me of the young Muldoon in the way that he concedes nothing. “What a masterful politician he would make.” Mr Jones said he held no malice towards Sir Robert.

“I just find him sad. I say that quite sincerely. “He had all the hallmarks of greatness and he blew it.”