The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, has sued the Examiner newspaper for libel over an article about sexual abuse in swimming.
Dr McDaid told the High Court yesterday he was "disappointed, shocked and angry" when he saw the article published on June 19th last year.
He was giving evidence on the opening day of his action for libel against Examiner Publications, Cork. Mr Justice O'Donovan and a jury were told the newspaper had admitted it was wrong and had published an apology.
Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the Minister, said the article was gravely damaging to Dr McDaid's reputation. There were only two issues before the jury, to assess damages and to decide what mitigation, if any, could be taken into account by virtue of the apology.
Dr McDaid (50), Sylvan Park, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, brought the action following publication of the article on page 1 headed "Gardai must get complaints before taking action. He knows who the sex monsters are, but he won't tell the gardai". Dr McDaid claims the heading concerned him and was published beside a photograph of him.
The article opened: "Sports Minister Jim McDaid will not hand details to the Gardai of the two swimming coaches accused of sexually abusing young children, exposed in the major report commissioned by him. Instead the victims must make a formal complaint to the Gardai who would then investigate it, his spokesman said."
It is claimed the words meant Dr McDaid was concealing the identity of suspected paedophiles from the Garda, was concealing the identity of suspected criminals from the Garda in his capacity as a Government Minister, and was hindering the course of justice, particularly the prosecution of suspected paedophiles. Mr Cooney said allegations were made about abuse of children in swimming in the early and mid-1990s. In January 1998 a coach, Derry O'Rourke, had pleaded guilty to a series of crimes and was sentenced to 12 years. Another coach fled the country.
Three days after O'Rourke pleaded guilty, Dr McDaid met a group of people who were effectively the victims of abuse. Dr McDaid appointed Mr Roderick Murphy SC to conduct a private and confidential Government inquiry. Dr Murphy produced a very detailed report, which did not name any individual, in early June 1998, and Dr McDaid brought it to the Government and it was referred to the Attorney General. The report was made public and received wide media coverage.
On June 20th, 1998, the Examiner published an apology which said its article the day before had wrongly suggested Dr McDaid was aware of the two swimming coaches accused of sexually abusing young children, or that the coaches' identities were made known to him by the report.
The Examiner was "happy to acknowledge Minister McDaid's determination to put procedures in place to protect all young children participating in all sports in Ireland in the future".
Mr Cooney said the Minister could not have revealed the names of two other coaches mentioned in the report as they were not named in Dr Murphy's report. For three weeks after the article, Dr McDaid received abusive phone calls.
Dr McDaid said at one stage he felt a public inquiry would have been in the best interests of all.
But some people who came forward saying they had been abused wanted their cases heard in private. Some people would never have come forward to a public inquiry.
Dr McDaid said he cut off funding for swimming in February 1998 until procedures were put in place to prevent a recurrence of what had happened. Dr Murphy's suggested reforms and guidelines were put in place and a new organisation was formed. Funding was restored just five months ago.
One could imagine how disappointed, hurt and angry he was when he saw the article. He was being accused as if he was a criminal. He was accused of being a paedophile. He had no knowledge of who "the sex monsters" were.
Following the article he received "horrendous" calls to his office and home in Donegal for about three weeks. They were the most vulgar and physically distressing calls he had ever received.
"I was absolutely shocked and abhorred by it and immediately got in touch with my solicitors and asked them to deal with it [the article]," the Minister said. He said the Examiner's apology did not prevent what had happened to him.
He told Mr Michael Gleeson SC, for the Examiner, he did not know the identity of other coaches mentioned in the Murphy report. He would only consider going to the gardai with their names if the victims had revealed their identity and asked him to.
The hearing continues today.