[images added by this
website]  - London, Thursday, February 24, 2006
Irving's
girlfriend is left homeless and bitter by
Neil
Tweedie BENTE Hogh surveys
the enormous living room of the £6,000-a-month
flat in Queen Anne's Gate that will soon cease to
be her home. "It was foolish of him to rent it -
we can't possibly afford it - but he's like that,"
she says. "He saw it and thought it would be
fun."  David
Irving comments: TWEEDIE appears unfamiliar with the
laws of libel, as his newspaper will soon
find out. Concealing assets from trustees
is a serious criminal offence under the
Insolvency Act. The Telegraph itself
already reported as did other newspapers
that at the height of the Lipstadt Libel
action in 2000 I stated quite frankly that
I had taken no such steps.
The journalists' only
remaining defence to an action in
defamation, namely fair comment in a
matter of public interest, is destroyed by
his sentences such as, "It is not easy
being the consort of David Irving,
the internationally reviled author, Hitler
apologist, Holocaust denier and new
recruit to the Austrian prison system."
and words like "feeblewitted."
Our Duke Street property
where I had lived for 38 years was seized
in 2002 (Lipstadt's lawyers had run up a
$13 million bill during the defence of my
libel action and appeals).
We moved into the roomy
Queen Anne's Gate property pictured above
in September 2005; the rent was less than
the figure stated. Within
only two weeks David L., the owner,
a British tax-exile living in Florida, had
started a horrific campaign of
harassment.
My British supporters,
who attended a reception at this apartment
a month after we occupied it, know very
well why we had taken this step. It was
paid for from the trickle of royalties
coming from my books published over the
last forty years.
As for the gratuitous
suggestion of a rift between myself and my
four surviving daughters (Jessica was too
young to visit alone under the
regulations, the others visited me in
prison, flying in from Spain and
Australia. Incidentally, the latter
daughter was granted 15 minutes' visiting
time, through a soundproof window, just
like anybody else).  |
It is not easy being the consort of David
Irving, the
internationally reviled
author, Hitler apologist, Holocaust denier
and new recruit to the Austrian prison system.
Miss Hogh, Irving's partner of 14
years and the mother of his 12-year-old daughter
Jessica, (left, younger) is not only broke
but about to be made homeless. Within weeks, she will be forced to
leave the flat, situated in one of the most
expensive streets in central London. Blue plaques
record that Palmerston, the great Victorian
prime minister, and Sir Edward Grey, the
foreign secretary who took Britain to war in August
1914, lived in Queen Anne's Gate - credentials that
will have appealed to Irving's snobbery. "They'll be taking me to court soon,"
she adds. "I haven't got the money to stay. "It was a stupid, feeblewitted thing
to do." Miss Hogh, 42, the daughter of a
Danish dentist, is talking of her partner's
decision to visit Austria on a speaking tour in
November last year, despite being the subject
of an arrest warrant issued by that country in
1989. Irving, 67, was on his way to address a
Right-wing student fraternity when he was
arrested. The warrant followed
two speeches during which the now discredited
historian repeated his thesis that the gas chambers
at Auschwitz were a fantasy, and that Hitler had
protected the Jews for a period during the war.
As such, they were clear violations
of the country's law against Holocaust denial,
introduced in the aftermath of the Second World
War. The result was a three-year prison
sentence imposed in Vienna on Monday [February
20, 2006], despite Irving's last-minute
conversion into a Holocaust believer. The
prosecution is appealing to have the jail term
increased. "Like him, I thought it would be a
suspended sentence," Miss Hogh says. "I feel sad
for him. He's getting old." She speaks of him with cool
detachment. How did they meet? "I was working for a
property company and renting his flat in Duke
Street," she explains. "Big mistake." She isn't
laughing. Irving was forced to sell the flat
after his disastrous libel suit in 2000 against the
American academic Deborah Lipstadt,
 who
had accused him of Holocaust denial. After a
three-month trial, the High Court in London sided
with Lipstadt. Faced with more than £2 million
in costs, he was driven into bankruptcy. It is unclear how Irving was able to
afford the rent of Queen Anne's Gate, although in
the past he has enjoyed the support of wealthy men
and women admiring of his views. Miss Hogh's only
work involves managing Irving's website. It is
known, however, that
some
of Irving's assets were placed under her
name to save them
from his creditors. Does she share any of his theories?
"Of course not. They are laughable. He doesn't mind
that I think that, though. He likes the game." Will she stay with him? "He would
have to show a great change in attitude."  Irving's
twin brother Nicholas, a retired civil
servant, and older brother John, (left) a
retired RAF officer, have both disowned his views,
while he is understood to have seen little in
recent years of his daughters by his Spanish wife
Pilar.
She moved back to Spain after their
divorce and has also described Irving's theories as
"laughable". Miss Hogh hopes to stay in London so
as not to interrupt her daughter's education. It
was to Jessica that Irving dedicated a verse cited
in the Lipstadt trial as evidence of his
racism. It went: "I'm a baby Aryan / not
Jewish or sectarian. / I have no plans to marry /
an ape or Rastafarian." Miss Hogh rules out a return to
Denmark. "It's boring," she says. After 14 years
with David Irving, a little bit of boredom might
seem welcome. ntweedie@telegraph.co.uk  Donate
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