Watergate's G Gordon Liddy sued

Watergate conspirator G Gordon Liddy has returned to court to defend himself against a $5.1m (€5.25m) defamation lawsuit.

Ida ‘‘Maxie’’ Wells, 53, sued Liddy in 1997 after he publicly accused her of operating a call-girl ring while working as a secretary for the Democratic National Committee.

Jurors deadlocked on the claim last year and a new trial was ordered.

The lawsuit centres on Liddy’s contention that burglars who broke into Democratic headquarters in 1972 were looking through Wells’s desk for pictures of prostitutes - including a photo of the future wife of John Dean, the former White House counsel to then-President Richard Nixon.