Interesting twist : What to do about anonymous slanderous letter ?

vvvooo

Very interesting situation. To cut a long story short :

Person X and person Y are sisters, who had a falling out some years ago. They live in different sides of the country.

Person X receives a signed letter in the post from person Y, as follows :

"Dear X,
I received an unsigned typed letter in the post, which was posted in your side of the country. I enclose a photocopy of it and the typed envelope. I am very hurt and upset. I am posting this to you and sereral dozen relatives / mutual friends in your part of the country to see if anyone can shed any light on the subject . yours etc, Y. "

The photocopied letter was indeed horrible, but X genuinely knows nothing about it. She does not know who may have sent it. X believes Y was saying unkind things about her, that Y suspected who it was from and that she was going to get forensics involved etc. Several months has happened and as far as X knows nobody has come forward and admitted responsibility. Should X insist on forensics / a lie detector test to clear her good name ?

edanto

Any involvement of legal services will likely make this dispute even worse.

It's a personal issue.

The sisters need to decide to either ignore each other for all of eternity, or else to invest in some mediation, which may help them to reform a relationship. If they don't care about their relationship, while sad, it is their decision.

Again, not legal (the things you mention at the end of your post are only more divisive things to argue about), it's a relationship matter and needs a skilled counsellor/mediator.

unattendedbag

vvvooo wrote: »

Should X insist on forensics / a lie detector test to clear her good name ?

Insist away. Who is going to lift these potential prints? And what is there to compare these prints against?

I don't know of any lie detectors that exist in this country and if there is, I'd love to be the barristor defending against it.

vvvooo

X is of the opinion that Y herself may have written the nasty letter and posted it to herself. ( to try to blacken X's name , or because of hatred or jealousy towards X ).

I guess the best thing for X to do is ignore it / forget about it, as forensics probably could not find out who wrote / posted the letter without major expense / trouble.( and even then, I am guessing it may not be possible ). X would love to find out who sent the letter, but I guess the Gardai have more to do with their time / resources than investigating such relatively minor matters. Thanks for your replies anyway.

Victor

Spellcheck the letters.

Peregrinus

If A writes to B saying nasty things about B, that's not defamation. You can only defame B by saying nasty things about B to someone else.

If B shows the letter to lots of people, either stating or implying that A wrote it, that is defamation - but it is A who is defamed by B. B is defaming A by stating or implying that A is the kind of person who would write such a letter.

However, unless you have very clear evidence that B has named A as the author either directly or by very strong insinuation, it would be difficult to mount a case against B.

I'd let this one go.

nuac

Best to ignore it

vvvooo

Thanks to all for replies. Its probably best to ignore it, as there are 5 or 6 people who could have sent the letter to Y, as well as possibly Y herself.