McDonald's wins libel case

Fast-food giant McDonald's won a record-breaking libel case against two vegetarian activists yesterday, although the judge said some of the criticisms of the company were correct.

In a 313-day trial, the longest civil case heard in an English court, Justice Rodger Bell heard testimony from 180 witnesses before announcing he had decided to award McDonald's damages of GBP60,000 (HK$757,000). The 'McLibel' trial is estimated to have cost McDonald's GBP10 million.

'The majority of the defamatory statements I found to be untrue. Others were true,' Mr Justice Bell said in a two-hour summing up of his three-volume, 800-page judgment.

The six-page pamphlet, produced in 1984 by unemployed ex-postman Dave Morris and part-time bar worker Helen Steel, accused McDonald's of abusing animals, workers and the environment, causing starvation in developing countries and promoting an unhealthy diet.

The judge found the claims largely untrue, but did agree that McDonald's paid low wages - although its workers were not badly treated - and was responsible for cruel treatment of animals, including laying hens kept in small cages their entire lives, and other chickens that are conscious as their throats are cut.

Morris, 43, and Steel, 31, were unable to pay for lawyers in the defence of their case, and had to formulate their own legal defence.