A SPORTING LIBEL CASE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1521, 19 June 1873, Page 4

A SPORTING LIBEL CASE.

The Argus of the 17th ult. reports :— Ignatius Feigl, printer and publisher of the Evening Herald, appeared* in the City Police Court yesterday, in answer to a summons for libel, issued at the instance of Mr Winch, the well-known owner of iace-horaes. The information was sworn by Frederick Winch, horse-trainer and groom, son of the horse-owner, and was to the effect that on the 18th April last the defendant Feigl wickedly, unlawfully, and maliciously, intending to injure the informant .in his good name, fame, and reputation, and to biing him into public contempt, scandal, infamy, and disgrace, printed and published in the Herald false, scandalous, and inflammatory matters concerning the informant, the horse Commodore, and the race for the Sydney Gold Cup. The information cited the following as the passages containing the alleged|libel: — "The A. J.C. Autumn Meeting. The Cup Race a Swindle. Commodore held by the groom until the others were 200 yards away. He did his trial in three seconds less than the race took. . Winch's colors torn off by his best friends. Public indignation immense. Commodore could have won had it been a 'square' race. f Tout Cela's ' tips, &c." "It is now universally known and is admitted on every hand that the race for the Sydney Gold Cup yesterday-was one of the most barefaced swindles ever perpetrated on a racecourse either in Australia or any other part of the world. Commodore, one of the favorites, winner of the St. Leger, and the property of Mr Winch, one of the leading turf-men of New South Wales, was held at the post by the groom, who, in the plainest manner possible, stuck to him until the others had got a clear 200 yards away. He evidently started in an interest not Mr Winch's, which interest did not get a place even, and was never intended to win," and so on. The information continued that by these passages it was meant that the iuformant, " knowingly, fraudulently, and with intent to cheat and swindle, held and detained Commodore with intent to prevent Commodore winning the race," &c. Mr Molesworth, for the defence, applied for a postponement until the 26th instant, and said that he did not think the other side would object. Mr Attenborough, who appeared for the prosecution, said that Mr Winch and his son had come here from Sydney on purpose to attend, and the very man who wrote this libel, and who told Winch himself he had -written it, had also come down from Sydney, and was in Melbourne. Mr Molesworth said he did not know who •wrote it. Mr Attenborough replied that he did — Dicker Hamilton. Mr Molesworth said he did not know it was a libel yet. Mr Attenborough suggested that the evidence for the proscution could be given. Only a 2>nnwi facie case need be made out, and the defence could be gone into at the trial. Mr Molesworth replied that the object of the defence was to prevent a committal for trial, and to prove that the publication was not malicious, but that there were facts present in the mind of the publisher which justified the article. Information and witnesses were required from Sydney. Ultimately, at the suggestion of the Bench, the case was postponed till Wednesday next, when it was said a further adjournment might be be applied for; The same paper of the 22nd ult (the latest date to hand) reports : The libel case — Winch v. Eveniwj Herald — which was to have been heard at the City Police Court yesterday, was postponed by consent till Friday, counsel on both sides being engaged at the Supreme Court in another libel case in ■which the Herald was concerned.