Police pay corruption author $250,000 after
illegally banning his books.
24 November 2000.
For 10 years the West Australian Police Union had illegally
forced bookshops in WA not to sell the ground breaking book The Mickleburg
Stitch and it’s sequel, Split Image, both by corruption author
Avon Lovell.
The books detail extensive corruption in the WA Police Force in relation
to the case involving a gold theft from the Perth Mint, where Eddie Mickleberg
was wrongly jailed after the event.
In a dramatic back down, the WA Police have now admitted that the books
are correct and recently paid Lovell a quarter of a million dollars in
damages arising from their illegal actions to stop sales.
As Lovell himself put it, "The WA Police said the books were bullshit
for ten years, now in the eleventh year, they say they are true!".
In that time Lovell fended off 40 defamation writs court and other legal
actions, and made an estimated 1,300 personal appearances in court. All
the litigation against Lovell was in hindsight vexatious and designed solely
to stop the truth getting out.
Lovell who also wrote a foreword in another controversial corruption best-seller
The Hoser Files, also banned by Police, this time in Victoria, said
that he hopes the pay-out to himself sets a precedent and becomes routine
for other corruption authors who put their necks on the line only to have
their books unlawfully banned.
Based on the pay-out, it seems that government officials should also pay
corruption author Raymond Hoser several million dollars in damages arising
from unlawful actions resulting in bans on sales of six books, including,
Smuggled, Smuggled-2, The Hoser Files, Victoria
Police Corruption, Victoria Police Corruption – 2 and most recently
Taxi:Indecent Exposures.
Before writing corruption books, Lovell wrote for the mainstream press,
including the Hobart Mercury, Sydney Morning Herald, Adelaide
Advertiser and Nation Review. He found that his editors refused
to print his ground-breaking corruption stories so instead wrote two corruption
books himself.
In the wake of the pay out and the vindication it entailed, Lovell announced
that he intended publishing further books detailing corruption within the
WA Police force and elsewhere.
For further information ring:
(Australia): 0412 777 211
This release is published at:
http://www.smuggled.com/MedRel58.htm