Allegations made by the Sunday Independent's former crime correspondent Ms Liz Allen that a colleague had bullied and intimidated her were rejected yesterday by the alleged perpetrator. She claimed that a cigarette had been thrown at her feet and that he had described her in an internal message to another member of staff as a "stuck-up bitch". Mr Jody Corcoran (33), now the paper's assistant news editor, told an employment appeals tribunal the incidents never happened. The tribunal is hearing an action taken by Ms Allen against Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd for constructive dismissal.
Ms Allen is alleging bullying, harassment and intimidation by two members of staff at the Sunday Independent - Mr Corcoran and the news editor, Mr Willie Kealy. Mr Corcoran, who was a reporter on the newspaper when the incidents are alleged to have occurred, said the allegation that he fired a cigarette at Ms Allen's feet was tantamount to violent behaviour and he was not a violent person.
He agreed with Mr Tom Mallon, for Ms Allen, that the allegations, if true, were serious, entirely unacceptable and would question his suitability to be promoted. He said he was promoted to assistant news editor without any training. He could not recall who was on the interview board, or if he was interviewed for the job.
Last February, when the case began, Ms Allen claimed Mr Corcoran was once friendly towards her but when she joined the Sunday Independent in 1996, replacing Veronica Guerin, he was no longer so. Mr Corcoran said he was reasonably friendly towards her, but "I wasn't rolling out the red carpet every time I saw her".
He denied offering Ms Allen's job to the then crime correspondent of the Star, Mr Barry O'Kelly. He said the newspaper had asked him to "sound out a few people" about a general reporter's job and Mr O'Kelly contacted him. Ms Allen was an essential part of the news team and he had no desire to see her out of crime reporting.
Ms Anne Harris, features editor and deputy editor of the newspaper, gave evidence it was her idea to offer Ms Allen the Keane Edge gossip column in 1999 after Ms Terry Keane left the paper. She felt Ms Allen had qualities required of a social diarist - a terrific image which she noted when Ms Allen appeared on the Late Late Show; she was talented and she felt she would be in touch with a young, affluent society. She seemed strong-willed, extroverted and "had balls".
She said when the idea was put to Ms Allen she was taken aback, pointing out that she was a crime reporter, but she said she would think about it. She eventually did one diary but wasn't prepared to do another.
Cross-examined by Mr Rory Brady SC, for Ms Allen, she said she did not see a letter Ms Allen sent to Mr Kealy and human resources in April 2000 in which she described feeling isolated and marginalised.