Leech wins libel action

Communications consultant Monica Leech has secured record libel damages of more than €1.87 million from a High Court jury after it found a series of Evening Heraldarticles meant she had been having an affair with Minister Martin Cullen.

The award is the highest ever in a libel trial and Independent Newspapers (Irl) Ltd, which owns the Herald, will apply on Friday for a stay on the award pending the outcome of an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The jury of seven women and five men took five hours and 20 minutes to reach a majority decision the 2004 articles meant Ms Leech was having an affair with then Environment Minister Martin Cullen and took almost a further hour to assess damages at €1,872,000.

Counsel for Ms Leech then asked Mr Justice Eamon DeValera to award costs against the Independent but the judge adjourned the costs issue and the application for a stay to tomorrow.

Applying for the stay, Eoin McCullough SC, for Independent Newspapers, said this was by any standard an “extraodinary” award, “the highest there has been in a case like this or a case not like this.”

In its deliberations, the jury was required to answer two questions — (1) whether the articles meant Ms Leech had been having an affair with the Minister to which they responded: “Yes”.

Question two asked whether the articles meant Ms Leech had travelled with the Minister to New York for a UN conference and never attended any of its sessions. The jury responded: “No”.

Ms Leech (49) had claimed the articles, published in November and December 2004, falsely meant she got government public relations contracts because she was having an affair with the Minister.

The Independent denied the articles bore the meanings alleged by Ms Leech and also argued it had raised public interest issues concerning the awarding of such contracts.

After thanking the jury and discharging it, the judge also lifted a ban on reporting of a matter which had led him to consider aborting the trial yesterday arising from an "inappropriate communication" from an Irish Independentjournalist on another issue unconnected with the libel action — understood to relate to judicial pay.

After hearing submissions from counsel, the judge had decided to continue with the trial and accepted an apology from the Independent’s counsel about the matter.

During the seven day trial, Ms Leech said she had spent the last four-and-a-half years trying to clear her name of the false allegation of an affair. She told the jury: “I was not having an affair with the Minister.”

Having spent several years working as a sole trader, particularly in promoting her native Waterford, and as a voluntary president of the local Chamber of Commerce, she was invited to promote projects in 2000 on behalf of the Office of Public Works (OPW) which at that stage Mr Cullen had responsibility for as a junior minister.

After Mr Cullen became a senior Minister in 2003, she said he asked her to provide services for the Department of Environment because he was not happy with the tone and style of communications in his new Department.

She was the only company to be offered a six month contract and later got a longer contract following an open competitive process which she won “on merit”.

Ms Leech told the court a new PR business she had launched with a partner never got off the ground as a result of the Heraldarticles. The first of the articles was sexist and demeaning in describing her as "the pretty PR executive."

The articles represented “a seedy dirty little campaign, typical of tabloid tramps”, continued to get “worse and worse” and were “a tsunami of lies” which people started to believe.

In a statement released tonight Independent Newspapers said they will be appealing the award to the Supreme Court.

“We believe this Award is totally disproportionate. We will of course be appealing the Award to the Supreme Court.

“This is yet another example of the pressing need for a fundamental review of our defamation laws,” the statement read.