A £20,000 libel award to two former owners of a National Hunt racehorse against RTE was upheld by the High Court yesterday.
Successful proceedings were instituted by the owners of the horse, Redundant Pal, after an interview given by Mr Brendan McGahon, Fine Gael TD for Louth, on The Pat Kenny Show on RTE Radio One on February 26th, 1990, during which there were references to skulduggery and betting coups in the Irish racing industry.
The Circuit Court awarded damages of £20,000, and RTE appealed to the High Court.
Giving his decision yesterday, Mr Justice Lavan said he found it strange that no evidence had been given about the formation of the programme before it went out on air. For the programme to take off, as it apparently had done, without regard to the implications or whether legal consequences might follow bordered on the reckless, he said.
It was striking that once the interview had begun, it was presenter Pat Kenny who had introduced the "Redundant Pal saga", the judge said. He found that the programme had implied corrupt or dishonourable motives on the part of the plaintiffs, who had not been offered an opportunity to respond.
He was satisfied the plaintiffs, Mr Sean Boyne, news editor of the Sunday World, of Claremont Crescent, Glasnevin, Dublin, and Mr Gerard Cooke, an investment company secretary, of Home Farm Road, Dublin, had made their cases for their entitlement to damages.
They were stated to have been two of a five-member syndicate which owned the horse in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The judge said he was satisfied with the assessment of those damages by the Circuit Court judge and he would let the award stand.
During the two-day appeal, RTE's only witness, Mr McGahon, alleged there was some form of dishonesty connected with the running of Redundant Pal late in 1989 and early in 1990. While he exonerated the trainer, Mr Paddy Mullins, from any wrongdoing, he was not in a position to say who was involved in the dishonesty, the TD said.
His allegation of dishonesty followed the defeat of Redundant Pal, the odds-on favourite in a two-horse race on December 29th, 1989, and Redundant Pal's victory over the same horse in a 27horse field a fortnight later.
In the first race, Mr McGahon said, Redundant Pal was beaten by 10 lengths, but a fortnight later, while at an 8 lb disadvantage, it beat the same horse by 54 lengths. That was inexplicable and no evidence had been produced then or since to explain it. It was incredible and defied logic.
There was a general air of disquiet surrounding the Irish racing industry at the time of his interview, he said. A few days earlier he had made a Dail speech expressing concern for Irish racing and citing a number of inexplicable results, including the defeat of Redundant Pal.
Cross-examined by Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for Mr Boyne and Mr Cooke, he agreed he had conveyed the impression in his radio interview that there was some dishonesty in the way Redundant Pal had been handled, although he believed the trainer, Mr Mullins, to be a man of great integrity.
Asked whether these allegations of dishonesty then attached to the joint owners and the jockey, Mr McGahon said the horse could have been tampered with by someone not connected with it.
He could not say who might have done that. In the two-horse race defeat, Redundant Pal did not run true to form. In the absence of any veterinary explanation that the horse was not well, that result could not happen.
He was not satisfied with the subsequent stewards' inquiry. Their exoneration of the horse did not allay his suspicions. He felt the stewards failed to hold a proper inquiry.
Earlier, Mr Cooke said Redundant Pal had won the Ladbroke Handicap Hurdle in 1989 and it was not surprising that he won it again in 1990. The horse was just not right on the day of the two-horse race.
Mr Boyne said he was amazed by the McGahon interview. His experience of being involved in the syndicate and owning Redundant Pal had been a very happy one until the RTE episode.
The Pat Kenny Show had made no attempt to contradict what Mr McGahon said. At no stage was he approached for a response, nor was any apology given. It had been a great strain for him to give evidence.
Mr Tim Conway, an accountant, a former member of the Racing Board and a former senator, said he was appalled by what he heard during the McGahon interview because it suggested his friend of 25 years, Mr Boyne, and other members of the syndicate were involved in some form of skulduggery.