PRESS COMMENTS ON McMAHON

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 11

PRESS COMMENTS ON McMAHON

Court Action Follows ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S APPLICATION By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, July 22. Statements published in the “Evening News” and the “Daily Express” arising from the proceedings against George Andrew McMahon, who was concerned in the revolver incident which occurred when King Edward was riding past Hyde Park Corner, were the subject of an application on the part of tlie Attorney-General for a rule nisi for a writ of attachment against the editors and publishers of the papers concerned on the ground that their comments gravely prejudiced the fair trial of the accused.

The bench, including the Chief Justice, granted the application, and the hearing was set down for July 27. The Attorney-General quoted passages from the “Daily Express” describing McMahon as “a man with a grievance against authority,” and alleging that McMahon was kept under constant observation by prison doctors and mental specialists, declaring: “This is a case of a man who brooded over imaginary wrongs and allowed his instability of character to derange his native intelligence and boasted that his views were non-sectarian and nonpolitical.” The “Daily Express” also published statements by persons claiming acquaintance with McMahon. One of these statements was: “He has drinking bouts which send him crazy.” Other paragraphs of which the Attor-ney-General complained stated that McMahon was obsessed with the crazy idea that Sir John Simon and the Home Office were preventing publication of the “Human Gazette.” The Attorney-General also cited alleged incidents in McMahon’s life which were published in the “Evening News.” declaring that there were grave objections to biographies of this kind. He objected to other passages “purporting to deal with motives and with the mental state of the accused.”