Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited has appealed to the Supreme Court against what it claims is a "grossly excessive" award of £60,000 damages for libel. The award was made to a man who was wrongly pictured as being housed in the sex offenders unit of Cork Prison.
The company asserted that Mr Finbarr Hill (28), a sheet metal worker, of Springfield, Clonmel, having been convicted of assaulting a Garda, should only have received nominal damages for the incorrect report published by Examiner Publications in 1995.
On November 17th, 2000, a High Court jury made the £60,000 award to Mr Hill after it found he had been libelled by an article and picture of him in Cork Prison published in the newspaper now known as the Irish Examiner (then the Cork Examiner) in 1995.
During the libel action, Mr Hill said he was serving a three-year prison term for assault on a Garda. The Examiner acknowledged during the hearing that the words complained of had been published but it denied Mr Hill had suffered any injury to his reputation.
Appealing against the award yesterday, Mr John Gordon SC, for Examiner Publications, said Mr Hill had not been directly libelled and the damages should never have been high. Mr Hill at the time was in prison having committed a serious offence and this should have been a significant factor in reducing any damages that might have been awarded.
At the time of publication, Mr Hill's reputation would have been low to worthless, Mr Gordon said.
Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for Mr Hill, said the jury had been perfectly entitled to take the view there was a sharp distinction between a crime of a sexual nature and all other types of offences, up to and including murder.
The appeal concluded and judgment was reserved.