10 Million reasons to smile

A LOUTH businessman who took a libel action against his former employers after an incident in which he sleepwalked naked has been awarded €10 million in damages, the highest libel award in the history of the state.

The jury agreed that a press release sent out by mining company Kenmare Resources in July 2007 insinuated that Donal Kinsella, 67, had made inappropriate sexual advances to company secretary Deirdre Corcoran on a business trip to Mozambique in May that year.

Mr Kinsella sued Kenmare Resources and its chairman Charles Carvill on foot of the press release claiming it had made him an international “laughing stock” over sexual impropriety allegations of which he had been exonerated by an independent internal inquiry.

Following three hours of deliberation yesterday, a jury of seven men and four women awarded him €9m in compensatory damages and €1m for aggravated damages.

Counsel for Kenmare, Bill Shipsey, described the award as “off the Richter scale”.

Last night, Kenmare Resources issued a statement saying it was “shocked” at the High Court jury verdict.

“The company will vigorously appeal the decision to the Supreme Court with a view to setting aside both the verdict and the amount and with the intention of securing a retrial,” the statement said.

Outside the Four Courts, Mr Kinsella told reporters the most apt word to describe his feelings was “elated” but another word was “vindicated”; that he had endured three years of “people looking at me funny and thinking I was a bit peculiar”.

“It is now all over and the judge and jury found me to be without blemish,” he said.

The press release that led to the court action stated the board of Kenmare Resources was to seek Mr Kinsella’s resignation as chairman of the company’s audit committee arising out of “an incident” in which he sleepwalked into the room of Ms Corcoran during a trip to Kenmare’s Moma Titanium Minerals Mine in Mozambique on May 9, 2007.

The jury was asked if the release stated or inferred Mr Kinsella had made inappropriate advances to Ms Corcoran and it unanimously answered yes.

It also agreed the publication of the release was intended to embarrass him.

The jury’s decision to award €10m – more than five times greater than the previous record amount granted in an Irish defamation case – drew gasps from the crowded courtroom.