Paul McKenna, the stage hypnotist, is suing the Daily Mirror over a "scornful" article claiming he bought a "bogus" degree from an American university for $2,615.
The High Court was told today that Mr McKenna was pilloried by journalist Victor Lewis-Smith in October 2003, in an article headlined "It’s A Load of Doc and Bull". But the truth was, said Mr McKenna's lawyers, he studied for 18 months to obtain his doctorate in hypnotherapy in 1997 from Lasalle University, Louisiana, to which he submitted a final, 50,000-word dissertation.
Mr McKenna, 43, who now runs a successful self-help practice, whose clients include David Bowie over his aversion to flying and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson over her fear of snakes, was in court to hear his counsel, Desmond Browne QC, open the case.
No one will be able to accuse Mr McKenna, whose blue chip clients also include the advertising giant, Saatchi and the City law firm, Freshfields, of trying to hypnotise the jury because there isn’t one. The case is being heard by Mr Justice Eady alone because of the prolonged examination of documents involved.
In his article, Mr Lewis-Smith referred to publicity material put out on Mr McKenna’s behalf boasting of his PhD, but not from the "well-respected" Lasalle University of the same name in Philadelphia. The author wrote: "I discovered that his doctorate had been awarded by another Lasalle University, an obscure, degrees-by-post establishment based in Mandeville, Louisiana.
"And, when I rang the university switchboard, I discovered that anyone could be fully doctored by Lasalle within months (no previous qualifications needed), just so long as they could answer the following question correctly: ‘Do you have $2,615, sir?"’
Mr Lewis-Smith said in his article that the principal of the university, Thomas James Kirk, was under investigation by the FBI and later pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. Soon after that, Mr McKenna’s publicity material suddenly removed all mention of his PhD.
Subsequently, he said, the hypnotherapist had obtained a genuine PhD from a genuine business school. But he went on: "His newly-acquired doctorate shouldn’t blind anyone to the fact that the man made his name by reviving on TV the sort of distasteful and humiliating acts that were banned in this country’s theatres in the 1950s."
Mr Browne told the judge: "Victor Lewis-Smith and the Mirror pilloried Mr McKenna as a fraud, claiming that he had a doctorate to which he had no honest entitlement. They can’t prove that to be true."
Counsel said that Mr McKenna, who is dyslexic, sought a doctorate to atone for his failure at school, to make a contribution to the community which would have practical therapeutic benefits and to add value to his business. Far from being able to buy a doctorate, the evidence showed that he was initially rejected by the university for the course.
The fact was that, at the end of 1996, it emerged that Lasalle was only accredited by a body called the Council for Postsecondary Christian Education, which turned out to be a fraudulent creation of Mr Kirk. But Mr McKenna did not know this until later after he had submitted his final project.
The university's lack of accreditation did not mean that it was a "diploma mill" or something that traded degrees for cheques, Mr Browne added. Investigations by the FBI and the US Department of Justice concluded that Kirk had defrauded innocent and unsuspecting students by leading them to believe that their degrees were accredited by a recognised body.
"The judge who sentenced Thomas Kirk referred to the innocent victims of this fraud and one of them was Mr McKenna," said Mr Browne. The US Department of Education was also gulled by Kirk, as it had Lasalle on its statistical database.
Mr Browne said that Mr McKenna tried to resolve his difference with the Mirror without recourse to litigation but it was the intransigence and obstinacy of the newspaper that eventually drove him to issue proceedings.
Initially, Mr McKenna sought to resolve his complaint amicably through his agent, Neil Reading, who spoke to Piers Morgan, then editor of the newspaper.
Mr Morgan replied by email: "Paul, you know what Victor is like. He is leaving us in a couple of weeks and, if you want my honest advice, I wouldn’t worry too much - nobody takes what he says too seriously. But, if you want to pursue it legally, I fully understand."
Mr McKenna lost a case he brought before the Press Complaints Commission in 2004 but, four days after the adjudication, his solicitors resurrected his legal complaint.
Marcus Partington, the newspaper’s lawyer, wrote to Mr McKenna’s solicitors: "If your firm is foolish enough to advise your client that he should issue proceedings over this matter and, in turn, your client is foolish enough to accept that advice, then there will be no alternative but to litigate this matter. If that happens, your client will find - to his immense cost, both personally and financially - that he has picked the wrong fight about the wrong article and with the wrong newspaper."
Mr McKenna’s conciliatory attitude did him no good, Mr Browne said, and it was further exploited by the newspaper.
At the invitation of Peter Willis, then deputy editor, who was a friend and co-author, Mr McKenna attended the 100th birthday party of the Mirror in 2003. He was told that there was a shortage of celebrities attending, though, upon arrival, he found the prime minister and the chancellor of the exchequer.
After the bash, Mr Partington wrote to Mr McKenna’s solicitors: "I am assuming from the fact that your client chose to attend the Daily Mirror’s 100th birthday party and accepted our largesse there...that your client has decided to put this matter behind him."
Mr McKenna was also quoted in the paper as saying: "I just hope that the next 100 years will be as great as the past have been." But the hypnotherapist never uttered the words which were actually composed by Mr Willis, counsel said.
Mr Browne said: "Very substantial damages are needed to vindicate the claimant of the charge of dishonesty and misleading the public. This is a grave allegation. It is a very substantial aggravation of the libel that it came to be published after a six-year campaign by Mr Lewis-Smith."
Mr McKenna is due to give evidence in the case tomorrow.
