Sends hate-wreath to grieving father

Traditional enemy, true to form

London, Sep. 16 -- Staff at Focal Point Publications revealed today that the traditional enemies of free speech had sent a hate wreath to London historian David Irving, with a cryptic message gloating over the death of his crippled daughter Josephine.

While certain details are being withheld in order not to hamper inquiries, the publishing firm states that on Tuesday afternoon, after Mr Irving's friends and family had returned from the Requiem Mass and funeral, the funeral undertakers phoned his office to state that a wreath had arrived late. The firm were instructed to send it to his address.

The wreath, an expensive sheaf of white lilies and white roses, carried a card whose precise wording is being withheld. Its message was one of hatred, gloating that the crippled daughter had now been "put down" on the lines of the Nazi mercy-killing programme. It was signed "Philip Bouhler and friends."

Bouhler was the director of the Führerkanzlei in wartime Berlin, and headed the Nazi euthanasia programme. He evaded prosecution as a war criminal by killing himself in 1945. Mr Irving's daughter was disabled since 1980, and crippled in a 1996 accident in which she lost both legs and was paralysed.

Mr Irving is suing Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Jewish history at Emory University, Atlanta, and Austrian born journalist Gitta Sereny for libel, and has attracted the enmity of the Jewish community for doing so. He states: "Few people nowaways would know the name of Bouhler."

Inquiries have revealed that the man who purchased the hate-wreath, at a florist near Holborn station, was well-dressed, dark haired, wearing khaki trousers and a business shirt, and aged about thirty-five. When the florist asked what time the funeral was, he stated he did not know but asked the assistant not to call to find out; he stated that it did not matter, they were to deliver the sheaf anyway.

Asked to write the message of condolences, the man excused himself stating that he had broken his wrist. He paid in cash for the sheaf, to avoid leaving credit card or cheque identity. He gave a phone number on the 839 exchange -- an area inhabited by law firms and Leftwing bookshops, which is now being investigated.

Related file: Radical's Diary, Action Report No. 16