“Members of the jury,” he began. “My name is Donald Trelford, and I represent the defendant, Mrs. Emma Clifton, while my learned friend Sir Edward Makepeace represents the plaintiff, Lady Virginia Fenwick.” He gave a cursory nod in their direction. “This,” he continued, “is a case of both slander and libel. The slander arises because the words in contention were delivered during a heated exchange, when the defendant was taking questions at the annual general meeting of the Barrington Shipping Company, of which she is chairman, and the libel arises because those words were later recorded in the minutes of that meeting.

“Lady Virginia, a shareholder of the company, was sitting in the audience that morning and when questions arose she asked Mrs. Clifton: ‘Is it true that one of your directors sold his vast shareholding over the weekend, in an attempt to bring the company down?’ Shortly afterward, she followed this with another question: ‘If one of your directors was involved in such an action, shouldn’t he resign from the board?’ Mrs. Clifton replied, ‘If you’re referring to Major Fisher, I asked him to resign last Friday when he came to visit me in my office, as I’m sure you already know, Lady Virginia.’ Lady Virginia then asked, ‘What are you insinuating?’ And Mrs. Clifton responded, ‘That on two separate occasions when Major Fisher represented you on the board, you allowed him to sell all your shares over a weekend, and then, after you’d made a handsome profit, you bought them back during the three-week trading period. When the share price recovered and reached a new high, you carried out the same exercise a second time, making an even larger profit. If it was your intention to bring the company down, Lady Virginia, then … you have failed, and failed lamentably, because you were defeated by decent ordinary people who want this company to be a success.’

“Now, members of the jury, it is Mrs. Clifton’s response that is the subject of this action, and it is up to you to decide if Lady Virginia was libeled or if my client’s words were, as I contend, no more than fair comment. For example,” continued Trelford, still looking directly at the jury, “if one of you were to say to Jack the Ripper, ‘You’re a murderer,’ that unquestionably would be fair comment, but if Jack the Ripper were to say to any one of you sitting on the jury, ‘You’re a murderer,’ and if the allegation was then printed in a newspaper, that would undoubtedly be both libel and slander. This case, however, requires a finer judgement.