Setting the record straight on Topalian

Your article CSD yet to close Topalian case (News, 20 June) was misleading on several points.

The allegations against me, and the call to resign, were put to me by Nick Jenkins alone, and completely refuted by me at the time.

There has never been a call by the CSD for me to resign as honorary secretary. Under the Royal Charter, such powers are vested in the society’s Council, not the president.

Furthermore, your article gives the impression that the society’s formal procedures were adopted in this case: that is not so. Until your article was published, I did not know the identities of the persons consulted by Nick Jenkins. I have not seen and do not know what information was given to them. It is clear they were not informed I had resigned as a trainer in December before any of the seminars were run. Certainly there was no hearing of any kind.

It is for others to judge whether I have been treated according to the norms of natural justice, likewise the motives of whoever supplied you with documents which give only part of the picture.

Alan Topalian

Alto Design Management

London SE

Others quoted in the piece have commented that it is a fair and balanced account of events – Ed