THE DEFAMATION action by Fr Kevin Reynolds against RTÉ did not proceed at the High Court yesterday because no judge was free to hear it.
Fr Reynolds had attended at the Four Courts for the action which was among five cases listed for hearing yesterday. When the case was called, Jack Fitzgerald SC, for Fr Reynolds, said the case was going on and he expected it would take four days. Paul O’Higgins SC represented RTÉ.
Mr Justice Éamon de Valera, who manages the High Court jury list, said no judge was available to take the new actions listed yesterday as he and Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, the two judges allocated to jury trials, were still hearing other actions which opened last week. In those circumstances, he would not empanel a jury yesterday for the new cases, the judge said. Fr Reynolds's case will remain in the court list and may go to hearing later this week or next week. Fr Reynolds, a Mill Hill missionary and parish priest of Ahascragh, Co Galway, has brought the action arising from a programme related to his time as a missionary in Kenya which was broadcast last May in the Prime Time Investigatesseries.
RTÉ has publicly apologised to Fr Reynolds for the defamation, saying he was entirely innocent of the allegations.
