Saturday, July 21, 2001

Irving faces bankruptcy after losing libel appeal

By DAILY TELEGRAPH CORRESPONDENT

THE historian David Irving faces the possibility of bankruptcy after losing his appeal against a High Court libel ruling that branded him a Holocaust denier.

The author of Hitler's War must pay, within 21 days, £150,000 of a costs bill which may ultimately reach £2.4 million. If he does not, bankruptcy proceedings may begin.

Mr Irving -- who brought his appeal with the help of donations from supporters, many of them living abroad -- was not at the Court of Appeal to hear Lord Justice Pill, Lord Justice Mantell and Lord Justice Buxton reject his attempt to overturn Mr Justice Gray's judgment of 15 months ago.

Mr Irving, 63, had sued Deborah Lipstadt, an American academic, and her publisher, Penguin, over her 1994 book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory which, he said, destroyed his livelihood and generated waves of hatred against him.

Mr Justice Gray said in his decision that Mr Irving had, for his own ideological reasons, deliberately misrepresented historical evidence and portrayed Hitler favourably.

Yesterday, Lord Justice Pill said Mr Justice Gray had been "fully entitled" to hold that the defence of justification succeeded. "[Mr Irving's counsel] has not persuaded us that it is arguable that the judge's general conclusions were unjustified.

"Where we have been invited to consider evidence in detail, it does not in our judgment diminish the soundness of the judge's conclusions."

He said the appeal judges agreed that Mr Irving "may be described as a Holocaust denier."

Richard Rampton, QC, counsel for Penguin and Prof. Lipstadt, said that there was now a real possibility of bankruptcy proceedings.