Priest's solicitor wants name of source

THE SOLICITOR of a priest defamed by RTÉ said he intends to find out the name of the source who made allegations about his client to the Prime Time Investigatesprogramme.

"I think the premise of journalistic confidentiality in this particular instance is flawed," Richard Dore, solicitor of libelled priest Fr Kevin Reynolds of Ahascragh, Co Galway, said yesterday.

Last week the broadcaster settled a libel action for a significant sum after the RTÉ programme of May 23rd, 2011, wrongly accused Fr Reynolds of having sex with a minor and fathering a child by her.

Fr Reynolds denied the allegations when put to him by a Prime Timereporter before the broadcast and his solicitor later repeated the denials.

On May 18th, a reporter contacted Fr Reynolds's solicitors and said the broadcaster had a very credible third-party source and other independent evidence that the priest had contributed financially to the education of the child.

Mr Dore told RTÉ Radio's This Weekthat he was "very interested to know who the very reliable independent third-party source" was and intended to find out. He hoped to get instructions from the priest and said the law was with him in pursuing the person's identity.

If there was a "loose cannon" prepared to make malicious statements against Fr Reynolds they could make such statements against another person, Mr Dore said.

There were also "questions to be answered" that programme reporter Aoife Kavanagh responded to a solicitor's letter directly. "It seems to me a very basic position that if a solicitor writes to RTÉ protesting about particular matters that at least it would go to the legal department in RTÉ and the legal department would respond," he said.

Mr Dore was critical of the church's treatment of accused priests that were guilty ab initio and "must prove their innocence which flies in the face of all concepts of fair procedures," he said.

National Union of Journalists secretary general Séamus Dooley said it was "entirely wrong and exceptional that one person, Aoife Kavanagh, should be the constant focus" because a reporter did not exercise the final editorial judgement and the incident was about more than one person.

Yesterday RTÉ said it was "reviewing the production of the Prime Time Investigatesprogramme and steps and decision that led to it being broadcast in defamatory form" and an independent expert review was being carried out.