Richard Desmond tried to visit Conrad Black in jail

Richard Desmond, the Daily Express and OK! magazine proprietor, flew to the United States last Thursday to visit his former rival Conrad Black in his jail cell in Florida. He was hoping to persuade the disgraced former publisher to release documents that would help him in a High Court libel hearing.

Desmond is suing the journalist Tom Bower over a claim Bower made in his 2006 book, Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge, that in 2001 Desmond ordered a Sunday Express journalist to write an article attacking Lord Black. At the time Black, owner of the Telegraph group, was one of Desmond's main business rivals.

Desmond (above left) also denies the suggestion made by Bower in his book that he was "ground into the dust" during a confrontation with Black (right) over the London printing plant jointly owned by the Express and the Telegraph. Desmond agreed that the particular dispute with Black over the Docklands plant was "acrimonious", but he claimed that, despite this, the two proprietors were generally friendly and had a good business relationship.

Last Tuesday the trial was dramatically brought to a halt on the second day of the hearing by High Court judge Mr Justice Eady who said said he was discharging the jury over the submission of new legal documents. The new trial began this week.

On Tuesday the court heard how, in the interim, Desmond had flown to Florida in the hope that Black would release documents that might help his case. But despite making the long journey to the Coleman correctional facility where Black is serving a six-and-a-half year sentence for corporate fraud, Desmond was unable to gain access to prisoner 18330-424.

Bower's QC, Ronald Thwaites, asked Desmond what had been his main purpose in attempting to visit Black. "To see how he was," said Desmond, adding: "He had offered his help to state that I had not been crushed by him in mediation... and that we had a good business relationship."

Desmond asked Black's lawyers to make documents available to him, but they refused, he told the court. But he had managed to contact Black, who is also considering legal action against Bower over allegations made in the same book, via letters and emails. Black had wished him "good luck" with the libel action, he said.

Thwaites mocked this revelation, saying: "Is there a prison correspondence between the two of you? 'Dear Conrad, how's your cell? Hope you have enough blankets'." Desmond replied: "That's very insulting."

The journalist who, according to Bower, was told to write the negative article about Black was David Hellier, then editor of the Sunday Express media pages. The court heard that Hellier was told by Sunday Express editor Martin Townsend that Desmond wanted "all the shit" on Black.

Desmond, under cross-examination by Thwaites, denied this. "I gave no orders. I give no orders on the editorial. The editor decides what goes in the papers." ·