In his long history of legal calamity, David Irving has confronted and lost to adversaries from the publisher Penguin, to a British World War II convoy commander, to the Austrian state.
To that list can be added Jennie Allen, the 60-year-old owner of a B&B in the genteel
London suburb of Kew.
Amid claim and counter-claim about boorish behaviour and an eviction made with the help of two police officers, the 69-year-old writer went to Wandsworth County Court this week to claim that Allen had wrongly asked him to leave her premises.
But in a pattern which must be becoming familiar to the much-criticised historian, the judge dismissed his claim for £2000 (NZ$5000) in damages for breach of contract after finding diverging interpretations by Irving that Allen was within her rights to ask him to leave.
He was ordered to pay Allen £60 (NZ$150) towards her costs and her bus fare to the court.
Irving, who was sentenced to three years' imprisonment by an Austrian judge in 2006 for claiming there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz, had booked a two-week stay last July at Allen's B&B so he could visit the nearby National Archives in Kew to research his latest book.
But within four days of his arrival at the £300 (NZ$750)-a-week guest house, relations between the researcher and his host, who has been running B&Bs for 35 years, had deteriorated dramatically.
Allen declined to comment on the case but said she was pleased that the court had found in her favour.
Court documents show that Allen believed Irving was moody throughout his stay, unsettling her other guests and behaving rudely towards her. She alleged that the scholar said "get out of my sight you evil witch" during a row over his conduct.
Irving "strenuously denied" making the remark and claims he spent most of the time in his room or at the National Archives.
The historian was sanguine about his latest legal setback.
"The judge found there was no case to answer," he said. "But I very strongly reject the suggestion that I behaved obnoxiously."
- INDEPENDENT
