Archive/File: people/i/irving.david/trouble-with-the-law
Last-Modified: 2001/08/22

"He has been sued for libel by a retired naval officer who considered
Irving's charge of cowardice against him in 'The Destruction of Convoy
PQ 17' to be defamatory, and had been forced with his publishers to
pay damages of #40,000, later confirmed by the House of Lords. The
award, made in 1970, was very large for the time, and included #25,000
in exemplary damages, which can only be awarded when it has been shown
that the defendant is guilty of a deliberate 'tort' or wrong committed
with the object of making money. His allegation in the introduction of
the German edition of 'Hitler's War' that the 'Diary of Anne Frank'
was a forgery had led to his publisher being forced to pay damages. In
1968 he had been sued for libel by Jillian Page, author of a newspaper
article about him, as a result of his allegation that the article had
been the result of her 'fertile brain.' Irving had apologized in the
High Court and paid costs on condition that Page agreed to withdraw
the action. Similarly he had also been obliged to pay costs in an
unsuccessful libel action againt Colin Smythe, publisher of a book
('The Assassination of Winston Churchill') attacking Irving's views
on the death of General Sikorski." (Evans, Richard. Lying About
Hitler, Basic Books, 2001, p. 13.)

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