A guesthouse owner who was defamed when a sketch on an RTÉ radio programme described his premises as “a byword for prostitution” was awarded €70,000 in damages by a High Court jury today.
Vincent O'Toole (84), who owns the Maryland House, the Mall, Waterford city, sued the station claiming he was libelled in a "Nob Nation" sketch on 2FM's Gerry Ryan show in August 2008.
The court heard he previously successfully sued the Sunday World over a similar libel and was awarded €50,000 in damages.
RTÉ accepted he had been libelled and the jury of six men and six women were asked yesterday to assess damages to include, if appropriate, aggravated damages.
After two hours and ten minutes of deliberation, the jury said it had assessed damages at €70,000, including aggravated damages.
The court heard RTÉ had already made a lodgement in court of €52,250 in relation to the case and counsel for Mr O'Toole, John Gordon, asked that that sum be paid out immediately in part satisfaction of the award.
Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne did so and also awarded costs to Mr O'Toole.
Afterwards, Mr O Toole said he had been vindicated although the amount he received "wouldn't paint my house."
However, the jury thought it was alright and he wanted to thank its members for bringing him through the case.
RTÉ had fought all the way, he said.
Mr O'Toole said the broadcaster had spent time chasing a man of 84 years of age and taking his name away.
"They took three years to apologise to me. It was unpardonable," he said, adding that he did not forgive the station "under any circumstances".
During the four day case, the court heard the Nob Nation sketch featured the character "Kevin My-arse" giving a "Linguaphone" guide to Waterford slang. It stated: "The Maryland is a byword in Waterford for prostitution", although the original establishment from whence the term is derived has ceased business."
Mr O'Toole said the words suggested he was a brothel-keeper, that his home was the haunt of undesirables and that he was or is involved in racketeering.
RTÉ was it was sorry for the broadcast but denied Mr O'Toole had been brought into public scandal, odium or contempt.
Mr O'Toole told the court he was "thunderstruck" and "disgusted" by the broadcast. He could not understand why anybody could sink to such a low level. "That is the way the media is going these days," he said. "They are out of control."
He said he was a pensioner on €300 a week and felt there was no chance of getting his business going. A man who wanted a room believed his premises was a brothel and wanted to know "the price," he said.
His wife, Ruth, told the court there were ongoing problems with people calling to the premises looking for prostitutes and some even got annoyed when told to go away.
In his closing speech to the jury yesterday, Paul O'Higgins SC, for RTÉ, said the station accepted it libelled Mr O'Toole but urged that any damages award should be fair to both sides.
RTÉ had slipped up badly and was unequivocally sorry for what it did, Mr O'Higgins said.
He asked the jury to take into account that RTÉ never sought to gain anything from the sketch.
Mr O' Higgins also urged the jury not to award aggravated damages because this was not a case where RTÉ had made the situation worse after the broadcast by giving the "two fingers" to Mr O'Toole.
A few days after the broadcast, Mr O'Toole 's lawyer wrote to RTÉ seeking an apology and compensation.
However, counsel said, this letter did not contain what the terms of the apology should be and because the station could not issue an apology unless agreed first with Mr O' Toole' s lawyers, RTÉ could not issue an apology which would have mitigated the damage to Mr O'Toole . The ball was in the court of Mr O' Toole and his lawyers, but they had not played the ball, counsel said.
The fact that no apology was issued, through no fault of RTÉ, could not now be used by Mr O'Toole to seek higher damages, counsel said.
John Gordon SC, for Mr O'Toole, said in his address, that RTÉ had no sympathy for his client's plight once the matter was brought to their attention.
It left the broadcast on the internet for nearly 18 months after it first went out claiming this was an accident, and this was not only irrelevant, but accidents like this simply should not happen, counsel said.
The jury was entitled to take this into account in approaching damages. There was also the "uneasy tension" between RTÉ trying to face up to what it had done and "trying to rubbish" Mr O'Toole's claim by saying that because it was a comedy sketch, it was not that serious.
There was nothing to stop RTÉ putting out an apology but they did not, counsel said.
While RTÉ had called the head of 2FM radio, John McMahon, to give evidence even though he was not in that job at the time of the broadcast, it had chosen not to call anybody who was involved. "Why, was it too embarrassing," counsel asked.
There was nobody in RTÉ appointed to monitor situations where items could remain on the internet and where there is "perpetual publication" and a repetition of a libel.
In her charge to the jury, Ms Justice Dunne said they should weigh up the evidence and see where the balance lies and take into account the credibility of the various people they heard during the trial.
She said damages were intended to fairly and reasonably compensate a person who had damage done to them and put them in a the position they had been in had the wrong not taken place.