LIBEL SUIT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20503, 22 August 1936, Page 18

LIBEL SUIT

M. McCARTEN SUES SPORTING PAPER United press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received August 21. 10.55 p.m.) SYDNEY. August 21. A libel suit, claiming £5OOO damages against Thomas George Hopkins and others of the sporting paper “Newsletter,” brought by Maurice McCarten, began in the Supreme Court to-day before Mr Justice Owen. The case is creating much interest in turf circles. McCarten denied the suggestions of malpractices attributed by the “Newsletter,” and defended his record as a jockey. Leading officials of the Australian Jockey Club gave evidence that McCarten was an “ornament of the turf.” The suit is part heard.

The former New Zealand jockey, Maurice Joseph McCarten, is the plaintiff in a claim against Arthur Leslie Herbert Hopkins, newspaper publisher. McCarten, in an affidavit read before Justice Sir Thomas Bavin in Chambers on February 13, alleged that the articles in the “Newsletter” formed part of a systematic attack made upon him by the paper. McCarten’s declaration said the articles meant that he was “a dishonest person and had been guilty of improper and corrupt practices; that he. had betrayed the trust of his employers and was not fit to fulfil the calling of a jockey.”

SCRATCH iIGS FOR TO-DAY By Felegrapb—Pres? Association AUCKLAND, August 21. Scratchings for the Pakuranga Hunt meeting are:Jellicoe Handicap—Versant. Sylvia Park Handicap—Doric Star, Valise.