Davison awarded €80,000 for racism accusation

FORMER Miss World Rosanna Davison has been awarded €80,000 in High Court damages against Ryanair for defamation in a press release which she claimed meant she was racist, xenophobic and jealous.

A jury of eight men and four women took just under three hours to reach their majority verdict.

The press release was posted on the Ryanair.com website on November 11, 2008, in reaction to remarks by Ms Davison in a national newspaper criticising the absence of Irish female cabin crew in a Ryanair charity calendar featuring female cabin crew in bikinis.

Ryanair denied defamation and denied the release contained the alleged meanings.

However, the jury found the allegations were false and defamatory and assessed compensatory damages at €40,000 and aggravated damages at another €40,000.

“I would have made sure that Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising,” she told the newspaper in November 2009. “Any person from any part of Europe would say that Irish women are gorgeous.”

Ryanair posted its release the next day: “Ryanair today hit back at comments made by Irish glamour model Rosanna Davison in relation to the absence of Irish cabin crew from Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar which [bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew’.”

“Ryanair confirmed all cabin crew were invited to apply for the calendar and that while only a small number of Irish staff applied, one Irish girl was invited to participate but was unavailable to do so.

The release also said: “Ryanair does not participate in tokenism... The strongest candidates were selected irrespective of race. This narrow-minded attitude is disgraceful”

In evidence, Ms Davison said was shocked and upset when she saw the release. She did not believe the calendar should be limited to one nationality. Of all people to call racist and elite, she was not such a person as she worked with and for people of all nationalities. Her family was also upset.

She said she considered a charity calendar a great idea and had herself participated in one, Models for Moldova. She felt her comments were “considered” and “very measured” and there was no intention to insult anyone.

Her solicitor, Paul Tweed, wrote to Ryanair looking for an apology and donation to charity but Ryanair’s response to her solicitor’s “reasonable” letters was aggressive, “incredibly juvenile” and “downright rude”, she said.

In his evidence, Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said he would not apologise to Ms Davison over the release and said he rewarded her decision to bring legal proceedings as “juvenile”.

He said he had not made comments about Ms Davison herself but rather about the comments she made about the calendar.

Mr McNamara disagreed that Ryanair does not take criticism well or that it is a “corporate bully”.

The trial also heard Ms Davison’s father, singer Chris de Burgh, had threatened to sue Ryanair unless his daughter got an apology. Mr de Burgh had said he had himself sued 16 times in other cases and won.

In his closing speech to the jury yesterday, Martin Hayden SC, for Ryanair, said fewer than 1,000 people based in Ireland had viewed the press release.

This put in context what is actually a “storm in a teacup” and Ms Davison was making it a “federal production” of it where there were 1,000 hits on the website, he said.

Mr Hayden also said Ms Davison regularly gave quotes to the media and she was very well versed in the media.

In his address to the jury, Declan Doyle SC, for Ms Davison, said his client had no option but to sue, particularly when Ryanair responded aggressively to her complaint.

To suggest, as Ryanair had, that saying someone was bordering on being a racist was not the same as calling them a racist was nonsensical, he added.

Mr Doyle urged the jury to use its common and street sense to come up with a figure which would appropriately compensate his client for the actions of this “enormous bullying defendant called Ryanair”.

Shortly after the verdict, Ryanair released a statement saying it would not appeal. “Having considered the matter further and in light of the fact that the jury award of €40,000 for damages to her reputation is less than the cost of an appeal to the Supreme Court we have decided not to bother appealing as we are very happy with this outcome.”