Prison warder loses defamation case over affair

A prison officer at Mountjoy Prison has told the Circuit Civil Court he had a relationship with the wife of a prisoner who was in the Dublin jail at the time.

Paul Moles, aged 41, of Park Lane, Grangerath, Colpe Road, Co Meath, yesterday failed in a €50,000 defamation claim against the Irish Daily Star newspaper which, in Apr 2010, exposed his affair. He now faces legal costs of more than €20,000.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane said the Irish Daily Star’s lead story that an unidentified married prison officer at Ireland’s toughest jail had been suspended over allegations he had slept with an inmate’s wife was true.