The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a new trial of libel proceedings taken by a Garda superintendent against the Sunday Tribune newspaper over an article arising out of a siege at a house in Co Cavan during which the county sheriff and two assistants were shot.
Last February Det Supt Patrick Joseph Browne lost his High Court action against the Sunday Tribune and was ordered to pay the costs of the three-day hearing. He appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
In a reserved judgment yesterday the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, said he was satisfied the trial judge had been wrong in law to permit Supt Browne to be cross-examined by counsel for the Sunday Tribune about previous proceedings for defamation he had taken.
In those circumstances, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal and ordered a new trial on all issues.
Mr Justice Keane said the Sun- day Tribune article of May 31st, 1998, purported to give an account of some circumstances surrounding a shooting which occurred when the county registrar for Cavan, Mr Thomas P. Owens, and two of his assistants, tried to enforce a court order for the repossession of a house in Cavan.
Mr Owens was seriously injured in the incident.