David Irving
David Irving is a far-right author who in 2000 lost a libel action he took against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt.
According to a report in The Guardian:
- He had sued Penguin books and the author Deborah Lipstadt over her book which said Irving had persistently and deliberately misinterpreted and twisted historical evidence to minimise Hitler's culpability for the Holocaust. Penguin incurred costs of £2m to defend the claim. In May 2000 Irving was ordered to pay an interim amount of £150,000, but has failed to pay a penny.[1]
In his verdict in the libel trial, which took place in the High Court, London on 11 April 2000, Mr Justice Gray stated:
- I have found that, in numerous respects, Irving has misstated historical evidence; adopted positions which run counter to the weight of the evidence; given credence to unreliable evidence and disregarded or dismissed credible evidence.[2]
Mr Justice Gray further stated:
- The charges which I have found to be substantially true include the charges that Irving has for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence; that for the same reasons he has portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable light, principally in relation to his attitude towards and responsibility for the treatment of the Jews; that he is an active Holocaust denier; that he is anti-semitic and racist and that he associates with right wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism.[3]
Affiliations
Academic and evolutionary psychologist Kevin MacDonald testified for Irving in the libel trial.
Resources
High Court judgment in libel trial available here.
Notes
- ↑ Vikram Dodd, Failed libel action costs Irving his home, The Guardian, 22 May 2002, accessed 4 Dec 2009
- ↑ David John Cadwell Irving vs Penguin Books Ltd and Deborah E. Lipstadt, High Court of Justice, 11 April 2000, accessed 4 Dec 2009
- ↑ David John Cadwell Irving vs Penguin Books Ltd and Deborah E. Lipstadt, High Court of Justice, 11 April 2000, accessed 4 Dec 2009
