Romantic messages weren't a poem - Colin Craig

Colin Craig (file)
Colin Craig (file)

Colin Craig has denied that a poem he wrote entitled 'You are Wonderful and Beautiful' was in fact a poem.

The former Conservative Party leader has been giving evidence in his own defence in a defamation action taken by Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams.

Mr Williams' lawyer had made him go through the poem line by line, explaining its meaning, on Monday.

But today Mr Craig described the words as "a list of encouragements" for then-press secretary Rachel MacGregor, who has been giving evidence against him.

They included "you are wonderful because you think like me", which Mr Craig said meant he and Ms MacGregor had a similar outlook on life; and "you are wonderful because you don't think like me", which meant she "wasn't backwards about coming forward".

Other lines read out included "your lips are so amazing to kiss", "you look unbelievable in your new dress" and "you are beautiful because you have the most perfect…"

"I just leave them to fill in the gaps or fill in the blanks," Mr Craig said on Monday. "They were to say, 'Look, write the rest, fill in the rest.'"

Mr Craig acknowledged that it was his own work and not copied.

He has taken a separate case against Jordan Williams for breaching copyright by republishing the work.

When asked whether he would issue them with a breach of copyright order, Craig replied: "If someone republished it and it was confidential information and I needed to do something about it, I would. You're aware that I have done that."

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