Lady in the black

THE Lady in Red is firmly in the black after former Miss World Rosanna Davison was yesterday awarded €80,000 in damages by the High Court at the end of a libel trial.

Ms Davison — daughter of well-known singer Chris de Burgh — successfully sued Ryanair after a jury found comments posted about her on the airline’s website were defamatory.

The 27-year-old model, student and newspaper columnist claimed the remarks published by Ryanair on November 11, 2009, suggested she was racist, xenophobic and jealous.

The airline was responding to quotes by Ms Davison contained in a newspaper article in which she criticised the absence of any of the airline’s Irish female cabin crew in its annual charity calendar for 2009.

Ryanair said her comments had “bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew”.

The jury found by a majority verdict that she had been libelled and awarded her €40,000 in compensation and another €40,000 in aggravated damages.

Speaking on Ms Davison’s behalf outside the court, her lawyer Paul Tweed said she was very satisfied with the outcome as it had provided complete vindication of her reputation. “She has shown considerable personal courage in bringing this actions and justice has been done,” he added.

The model said she was “delighted” with the verdict.

Ryanair’s head of communications Stephen McNamara maintained his refusal to apologise to Ms Davison and insisted the airline should have been allowed to argue its defence on the basis of fair comment and qualified privilege.

Having initially indicated that it would appeal the award to the Supreme Court, Ryanair last night said it had decided “not to bother”.

Picture: A smiling Rosanna Davison after a High Court jury found that she had been libelled by Ryanair and awarded her €40,000 in compensation and another €40,000 in aggravated damages. Picture: Courtpix