A JOURNALIST told a libel jury yesterday that he went out of his way to make it clear that the solicitors who acted for Paratrooper Lee Clegg had "forcefully rejected" criticism of their handling of his defence.
Mr Colin Randall, chief reporter of the Daily Telegraph, was giving evidence at Belfast High Court in an action against the newspaper by five partners in the Belfast law firm of McCartan Turkington Breen.
The solicitors - Bernard Turkington, Damien Breen, Ernest Telford, Gerald McVeigh and Michael Bennett - are claiming damages for alleged libel in a report of a press conference called by the "Free Lee Clegg" campaign after the House of Lords had rejected his appeal against conviction for murdering Ms Karen Reilly, a passenger in a stolen car.
The front page story alleged that highly relevant evidence had been either glossed over or omitted, with the result that Clegg was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mr Randall told the jury that after the press conference he had telephoned Mr Telford, the solicitor who had carriage of the Clegg case, to get his response. Mr Telford had faxed a reply rejecting the allegations.
"I added the word `emphatically' into my report because I wanted to show readers that the criticism was not just being resisted, but was being forcefully rejected", he said.
The Daily Telegraph has admitted that the article was defamatory, but is claiming qualified privilege on the grounds that the report was a fair and accurate account of a public meeting.
The hearing continues today.