LONDON LIBEL ACTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19871, 15 February 1928, Page 11

LONDON LIBEL ACTION.

CASE FOR THE DEFENCE. ALLEGED HOAX ON PUBLIC. (Received February 14, 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Feb. 13. The hearing was continued to-day of the caso in which the well-known explorer Mr. F. A. Mitchell-Hedges is claiming damages from the Daily Express for alleged libel said to have been contained in a report to the effect that the hold-up of the explorer on January 15, 1927, was a hoax and a publicity enterprise. In opening the case for the defence Mr. W. A. Jowitt, K.C., said: "I suggest that plaintiff is an impostor who has made claims he cannot substantiate. No doubt he has been to Panama and talked to the Indians, and he has had certain interesting experiences, but X contend that a man who would write up those experiences as plaintiff did is an impostor." William Shaw, a chartered accountant, of Dublin, who was one*of the attackers, related the detailfi of the abortive holdup on January 6, 1927, and of the successful attempt on January 14. He said Kenneth Taylor was tied up, but neither Mr. Mitchell-Hedges nor Mr. Edgell was knocked down or hurt in auy way. Mr. Edgell deliberately made the grass untidy in order to suggest that there had been a scuffle. The whole thing was a prank to advertise monomarks. The idea was that plaintiff's bag should be discovered by means of the monomark. Cross-examined witness admitted that after plaintiff had issued the writ against the Daily Express he (Shaw) signed a statement for plaintiff's solicitor to the effect that plaintiff and Mr. Edgell were in no way privy to the hoax. He was now thoroughly ashamed of having signed that statement.