A jury in the High Court in Dublin has found that a Dublin solicitor had been defamed in a rugby article published by The Irish Times in March last year.
The jury yesterday found that the article, written by sports reporter John O'Sullivan, meant that a solicitor, Mr Peter Boyle, of Hillside Drive, Castle Park, Dublin, was guilty of corrupt, biased and unjust conduct. He was awarded £50,000 and costs.
Mr Boyle was chairman of the Six Nations disciplinary committee which on March 9th last year banned French rugby international Olivier Magne for 21 days. It had been alleged that Magne head-butted Scotland's Stuart Reid in a Murrayfield international.
In an article published by The Irish Times the next day the French player suggested "the Irish rugby fraternity" had colluded to keep him out of the next French international game, which was against Ireland 10 days later.
The article then quoted Magne as saying: "This is a stitch-up. This sentence was already decided before the hearing and I sensed that when I arrived in Dublin. After all, I was being heard by Irishmen in Ireland a week before we play Ireland."
The article continued: "Not quite true. The Frenchman's case was heard by a three-man committee under the chairmanship of Ireland's Peter Boyle, with one representative from England and Wales, respectively."
During the trial, it was stated on Mr Boyle's behalf that it was no defence for the newspaper to say it was only repeating what someone else had said. To repeat a defamatory statement was precisely the same as if one had said it in the first place, Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for Mr Boyle, submitted.
Counsel for The Irish Times, Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, argued the article was not defamatory of Mr Boyle but was in support of him because it stated that what the French player had said was "not quite true".
Mr Justice O'Higgins put a stay on his order in the event of an appeal.