Examiner cleared of contempt of court

THE Irish Examiner has been cleared of a charge of contempt of court following the publication of newspaper reports earlier this week which led to the discharge of a jury in a murder trial.

The Central Criminal Court ruled yesterday that the Irish Examiner and the Irish Star had published reports on court proceedings, which they had received from an independent news agency, “in good faith”.

The editors of both newspapers were summonsed to appear before the court after Mr Justice Barry White discharged the jury in the murder trial of three young men on Tuesday following reports of the case in that day’s editions of the Irish Examiner and Irish Star.

The court heard it would not have been possible for the legal advisers of the two newspapers to have detected any error in the articles.

All three accused, Robert Heaney, aged 20, of Hand Street, Drogheda, Co Louth; Mark Johnson, aged 22, Church View Upper, Mell, Drogheda, Co Louth; and Christopher Wood, aged 26, of Castle Grove, Julianstown, Co Meath, have pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering Russell Deane in his home at Elmwood Drive, Drogheda, Co Louth, on February 1, 2003.

Felix McEnroy SC, for Mr Heaney, told the Central Criminal Court yesterday that the Irish Examiner and Irish Star had both published a report on Tuesday of the previous day’s proceedings which was “factually incorrect”.

Contrary to the content of the articles, Mr McEnroy said no evidence had ever been given in the trial which suggested that three people had struck the deceased.

He claimed the two articles constituted an unlawful interference with the administration of justice as well as violating Mr Heaney’s constitutional right to a fair trial and the DPP’s entitlement to prosecute the case.

Both reports had also exposed Mr Heaney to “public obloquy”, Mr McEnroy said. “The action and conduct of the two newspapers was conscious and deliberate,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr McEnroy pointed out that the articles had been published against a background of separate contempt proceedings against other newspapers earlier in the same trial.

(The Irish Sun was fined €100,000 last Monday for contempt of court for what Mr Justice White described as the newspaper’s deliberate and conscious effort to prejudice the outcome of the trial. The Irish Mirror was also criticised but not fined for another case of misreporting the evidence. However, reports of the proceedings against both tabloid papers were not allowed to be published at the time.)

Siobhan Gaffney, the freelance journalist who had provided the court copy to the newspapers on behalf of an agency, apologised to the court, the three defendants, the family of the victims, the legal teams and gardaí in the case for furnishing an inaccurate report on the trial.

“I have to put my hands up and say I was 100% wrong,” Ms Gaffney said.

Diarmuid McDermott, the managing director of Ireland International News Agency, which provided reports of the case to national newspapers, said it was the first incident of contempt which had arisen since his company first began supplying coverage of murder trials in 1982.

Mr McDermott pointed out that the Irish Examiner and Irish Star were not aware that another issue of contempt had arisen earlier in the trial because his agency only supplied reports of evidence heard in front of a jury.

Tim Vaughan, the editor of the Irish Examiner, apologised unreservedly to the court for publishing an article which was virtually “the mirror image” of copy supplied by Ireland International.

Mr Vaughan said it was the first time the newspaper ever had a problem with copy supplied from “a very reputable agency”.

The Star’s editor, Gerard Colleran, also apologised for publishing “a dreadful error”.

Both editors said they would examine existing reporting methods to ensure they would be aware of contempt proceedings in future trials when they arose.

Mr Justice White said he did not consider yesterday’s contempt proceedings “to be in the same category” as those taken against the Irish Sun earlier in the trial.

However, the judge explained that he discharged the jury last Tuesday because of the “overlay effect” of the two matters.

Mr Justice White said he was satisfied that there was no malice on the part of Ms Gaffney or either newspaper in publishing the article.

He made no order on costs against any party to the proceedings.