The father of rugby player Paddy Jackson has been left “crushed” by an Irish reality TV personality falsely claiming he tried to pay off the complainant at the rugby star’s rape trial, the High Court in Belfast heard on Tuesday.
Peter Jackson became so obsessed and paranoid about the lies spread on social media by Danielle Meagher that he suffered a stroke while trawling the internet to check on her latest postings, a judge was told.
“This was an absolute statement that I had been criminally dishonest,” Mr Jackson said.
“If the intent of the tweets was to get into my brain and into my heart that was achieved by the individual who put them out there.”
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Mr Jackson sued Ms Meagher, also known as Danielle Collins, for libel over the unfounded allegations published on Twitter, now rebranded as X, back in April 2018.
Weeks earlier the former Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson (33) and Stuart Olding (32) had been unanimously acquitted of raping the same woman.
Both sportsmen denied any criminal wrongdoing throughout their high-profile trial in Belfast.
With judgment already obtained against Ms Meagher in the defamation action, she did not attend Tuesday’s hearing on the level of damages to be awarded.
Accompanied by his wife Gay, Mr Jackson described how their lives have been “decimated” since the untrue claims were published about him bribing a witness and attempting to bribe the complainant at his son’s trial.
He told the court his shock and anger led to him losing self-confidence and so socially withdrawn in the intervening seven years that he became almost a recluse.
The court heard Ms Meagher later denied knowing anything about the tweets, making baseless claims that the account was operated by a talent agency.
The retired sales manager said one of his “deepest desires” would have been to meet Ms Meagher face to face for an explanation and apology.
Instead, however, he trawls social media platforms on a daily basis to discover if anything else has been posted.
“My mobile phone is never off, it’s like a fixation or an obsession,” he added.
His wife described the shock of her husband suffering a stroke in August this year while he was in bed checking on the defendant.
“This lady, I can’t bear to say her name, had been at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we were trying to see reviews, and the stroke happened then,” she told the court.
Asked about the impact on her husband in the years since their son’s trial, Mrs Jackson added: “His whole confidence and self-esteem has been ripped from him because of what happened.”
Their lawyers argued that Mr Jackson has now spent more than seven years waiting to have his reputation completely vindicated through an award of damages.
Reserving judgment on level of compensation, Mr Justice Master Harvey pledged to give his decision as soon as possible.
