RTÉ crime correspondent awarded €60,000 for libel

RTÉ’S crime correspondent Paul Reynolds has been awarded €60,000 in damages after winning a libel action against the head of the Garda Representative Association, PJ Stone, and the GRA’s official magazine, Garda Review.

It is understood the sum is a record award in a libel case conducted at circuit court level where normal awards are limited to a maximum of just over €38,000.

Mr Reynolds took the libel action following the publication of an editorial article written by Mr Stone in Garda Review in September 2001 which was critical of one of his reports for RTÉ.