RTE pays Guy for remarks on show

RTE is understood to have made an out-of-court settlement for over £50,000 to the drug tester Mr Al Guy, over remarks made about…

RTE is understood to have made an out-of-court settlement for over £50,000 to the drug tester Mr Al Guy, over remarks made about him on Pat Kenny's radio show in April 1998.

The station last night refused to comment.

Mr Guy and his wife conducted the test which resulted in Olympic champion Michelle de Bruin's suspension for tampering with a sample.

The remarks were made by Mr Vicente Modahl, Diane Modahl's husband. E over an interview with Vicente Modahl on the Pat Kenny show. Mr Guy, a senior official of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, was part of a five-person panel which in December 1994 found Modahl, Britain's top 800 metres runner, guilty after testing positive to testosterone and banned her for four years.

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The suspension was lifted, and Modahl exonerated, after an appeal hearing in March 1996 which she funded by selling the family home. Modahl is now suing the bankrupt British Athletic Federation for £800,000. The case is due to be heard in the House of Lords next month.

Mr Guy also carried out the drugs test on British shot putter Paul Edwards in 1994, which led to him receiving a four-year ban. This month at a hearing in Lausanne de Bruin lost her appeal against a four-year ban imposed after the incident, effectively ending her career.

RTE, which settled out of court, has also broadcast a public apology to Mr Guy.

"Clearly the only thing I could do was to fight to clear my name," Mr Guy said yesterday.