A television producer, Mr Sean McPhilemy, broke down in the witness box in the High Court in London yesterday as he described the effects that a Sunday Times article has had on his career and life.
Mr McPhilemy is suing the newspaper for libel. The Sunday Times, in an article in May 1993, described as a hoax a programme Mr McPhilemy had made for Channel 4, broadcast on October 2nd, 1991, which alleged collusion between the security forces in Northern Ireland and loyalist paramilitaries to murder Catholics. The newspaper denies the claims.
Yesterday Mr McPhilemy told the jury that after the article nobody wanted to know him. His company, Box Productions, which specialised in delicate investigative journalism, was finished. The article was hurtful to him and his wife. It seemed that it was alleging he was motivated by sectarian hatred, but his wife and he were from the two different traditions.
"It was a horrible thing to do," Mr McPhilemy said. When he spoke of his family, Mr McPhilemy's voice broke and he wiped away tears. "I've been living on the charity of my brother, friends and parents for years," he said. Some good had come of it as his family was never closer or more united, he added.
Becoming emotional again, he said: "They've [Sunday Times] done their utmost to ruin me." Asked if he had carried out a hoax, Mr McPhilemy replied: "I wouldn't do it, I couldn't do it and I didn't do it. My career has been destroyed by the article."
Earlier the court heard that there were alleged security threats against Mr McPhilemy and the team working on the documentary.
The programme had alleged that there was a committee of members of the security forces, bankers, solicitors, city councillors and loyalist paramilitaries which conspired to kill IRA suspects.
Mr McPhilemy said that his researcher, Mr Ben Hamilton, told him in July 1991 that he had heard Mr Billy Abernethy, who it was alleged was the chairman of the committee, had carried out a preliminary reconnaissance on his house in Oxford. In the office in Covent Garden, London, where the film was edited, the company's large safe disappeared although there was nothing in it.
Mr Hamilton then told him that Mr James Sands or a journalist, Mr Martin O'Hagan, had told him that four men were due to fly to Heathrow to pay him (McPhilemy) and Mr Hamilton a visit with hostile intent. British police watched Heathrow but said the men did not come. At a meeting at Channel 4, the police played down the threats, said Mr McPhilemy.
Mr McPhilemy said he moved out of the family home and stayed with friends in London.