From Chris Owen:


"A Piece of Blue Sky" was published in 1990.  It was not until 1995,
however, that its author, Jon Atack, was sued for libel by Margaret
Ishobel Hodkin of East Grinstead, England.  Mrs Hodkin is (or was) the
headmistress at the Greenfields School in East Grinstead, which teaches
L. Ron Hubbard's "Study Technology" and reportedly is the school of
choice for the local Scientologists.  

The complaint was with specific reference to one single paragraph, at
the head of page 336 of the book.  The writ was issued on 14th March
1995 and heard by Master Tennant on 26th April.  Atack was found guilty
of libel, but was given leave to appeal to the High Court.  The case
came before Deputy Judge M. Bethel Q.C. on 18th May 1995.  The appeal
was turned down and Atack was ordered to pay costs and damages, the
latter to be assessed at a later stage.  He was forced to declare
bankruptcy the following day.

Atack was also enjoined from "further publishing or causing to be
printed published and distributed the book entitled 'A Piece of Blue
Sky' containing the defamatory words".  However, he was the *only* one
enjoined in this way - neither his publishers, Carol Publishing Group,
nor UK booksellers stocking the book were sued or enjoined (which is
most unusual where UK libel cases are concerned).  Nobody other than
Atack has ever been sued for libel over the book.  Furthermore, he is
enjoined only from publishing "Blue Sky" with the defamatory paragraph -
nothing in the rest of the book was found to be defamatory.

Officially, Scientology wasn't involved in this case.  Mrs Hodkin was
represented by Hodkin & Company, Solicitors, of 6 Portland Road, East
Grinstead, Sussex.  As the names suggest, there is indeed a connection
between the two - the company's Peter Hodkin is the son of Mrs Hodkin,
and presumably also is a Scientologist.  Scientology had no overt
connection to what was judged a libel against an individual who was not
an officer of the Church, and it was not a litigant.

However, Scientology *did* claim responsibility for bringing the case.
Not long after the case concluded, an extraordinarily vitriolic article
was published in issue 18 of "High Winds", "The Magazine of the Sea
Organization" (undated but with a copyright claim for 1995).  The
article, "The Sea Org - Handling Suppression on the 4th Dynamic" [i.e.
in society], describes the work of Scientology's legal/intelligence
branch, the Office of Special Affairs (OSA), in combatting "Suppressive
Persons" - those who have been critical of Scientology.  The article
states:

  "In the United Kingdom, for example, one old-time suppressive ... was 
  completely shut down by the courts.  Unemployed and abandoned by his 
  family, this squirrel had schemed to make money by hawking his lies in 
  a book.  But, the Office of Special Affairs had a court declare his 
  book libellous".

I think this statement speaks for itself.  

There are several significant questions still outstanding:

- Why was there a delay of five years before Atack was sued for libel?

- Why were his publishers and distributors not also enjoined?

- Why, as far as I know, were claims of libel not pursued in the other
countries where "Blue Sky" was published?

- What was the involvement of the Office of Special Affairs?

Hodkin & Company subsequently wrote to many organisations informing them
of the result of the case, and in the case of public libraries,
demanding that they destroy their copies of "Blue Sky" (even though
there was and is absolutely no legal requirement for them to comply).
However, several did comply.  For some strange reason, several of Hodkin
& Company's copies of the replies from UK libraries have ended up on the
website of the so-called "Scientology Parishioners' Committee" (see
http://www.parishioners.org/ReligiousExperts/atack1.htm).  Their
provenance is pretty obvious - they are addressed to Hodkin & Company
and they are stamped with the date on which they were received.  How did
the SPC get these documents?

-- 
   |           Chris Owen - chriso@lutefisk.demon.co.uk            |
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