CRIMINAL LIBEL

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 264, 3 August 1932, Page 10

CRIMINAL LIBEL

Accusations in Pamphlet TWO MEN CONVICTED Actions of Inspector Lander By . Telegraph—Press Association.. Auckland, August 2. The re-trial of George Budd, 35 years of age, a seaman, and Ernest Frederick Thompson, an agent, who were charged with publishing a criminal libel against John Lander, inspector of police at Wellington, took place to-day.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and added a rider that Thompson was of weak intellect and easily influenced. The passing of sentence was postponed.

The charge arose out of an unemployed demonstration in the grounds of Parliament House, Wellington, on September 16. The alleged libel was contained in a pamphlet entitled “War” distributed at a meeting held in Auckland in October, and it referred to Inspector Lander as a “liar and perjurer” when he said he was not armed while on duty during the disturbance. At the first trial last week, which resulted in a jury disagreement, his Honour described the case as a comparatively simple one. The statements against Inspector Lander, he said, were that he was a liar, that he perjured himself. and that he attacked defenceless men and women. It was open to the defence to seek to prove that the statements were true, but they had not done so. If these words had been published it would be absurd and impossible to suggest that they were not defamatory. The main defence was that these two men were not responsible for the publication and distribution of the paper, but there was the direct evidence of two police officers implicating Thompson, and the name of Budd wag at the bottom of the paper. The real question was: Is this defamatory libel referring to Inspector Lander?