Twink’s ex’s partner loses action for defamation

THE partner of panto star Twink’s former husband, David Agnew, yesterday lost an action for defamation and breach of privacy against a newspaper for publishing photos and articles about her.

However the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said the articles by the Sunday World “represented the lowest standards of journalism imaginable”. He said the issue of privacy versus freedom of expression should be a matter for new legislation.

Ruth Hickey, aged 36, of Archer’s Wood, Castaheany, Dublin 15, sued the Sunday World over the material which was published after she, her newborn son and Mr Agnew, were photographed leaving the Births, Marriages and Deaths office in Dublin on May 10, 2006.

Ms Hickey claimed the repetition by the newspaper in two subsequent articles of words used in a voicemail message and in a scrapped interview with the late RTÉ radio and television celebrity Gerry Ryan by Twink meant she was a prostitute and her son a bastard.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Kearns rejected Ms Hickey’s breach of privacy and defamation claims but remarked that he felt compelled to state that the articles by the Sunday World about her “represented the lowest standards of journalism imaginable”.

He added: “It is a regrettable fact of life that such material sells newspapers.” He said he was making these remarks in the context of an application for costs on the matter which he will deal with in a week.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Kearns concluded that the publication of photos of them leaving the registry office were not a breach of privacy because they were taken in a public place when they were performing a routine public function.

He also said no evidence was given to establish Ms Hickey’s contention that a campaign of surveillance had been carried out by the paper against Ms Hickey, her partner or child.

The judge also said Ms Hickey spoke to journalist PJ Gibbons, of Social and Personal with the specific intention of getting publicity for matters “in respect of which she now seeks to claim privacy”.

The voicemail message in which Twink used the offensive words about Ms Hickey and her child was already posted on the internet and in the public domain, the judge said.

“I am satisfied [Ms Hickey] has herself actively sought publicity from the press and media concerning her partnership with Mr Agnew and the birth of their child,” the judge said. She herself made public statements concerning her family life and had taken part in a photo shoot for Social and Personal and gave interviews “for public consumption”, the judge said.

The judge said he could not see anything in the case which has been placed in the balance by or on behalf of Ms Hickey which outweighs the right to freedom of expression which the paper was entitled to.

Were he to hold otherwise, it would represent a “radical ratcheting up of the right to privacy at the expense of the right to freedom of expression to a degree which, in my view, should more properly be the subject of legislation”.

The judge added there were many “strange and unexplained aspects of this case” which he found disquieting but on his interpretation of the applicable legal principles, the Sunday World was entitled to a dismiss of Ms Hickey’s claims.