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Cornwell launches libel suit against author

24.05.07

The Guardian reports that the bestselling writer Patricia Cornwell this week told a Virginia courtroom how another, less celebrated author, had stalked her on the internet, causing emotional distress and damaging her reputation. Cornwell was testifying in the libel suit she brought against Leslie Sachs, who alleged on his website that the author of the Kay Scarpetta series of crime novels was a "Jew hater" and "neo Nazi".

The unlikely dispute between the two, which was described in court by a psychiatrist as a case of "cyberstalking", stems from the publication in 2000 of Cornwell's The Last Precinct. Sachs claimed that Cornwell had plagiarised one of his books, The Virginia Ghost Murders. He wrote postings on his website attacking her and after she won an injunction against him fixed a sticker to the cover of his book reading: "The book that famous Patrica Cornwell threatened to destroy."

Guardian

Patricia Cornwell libel

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