Dublin student loses €75,000 claim

A judge yesterday told a Dublin student there was no merit in his €75,000 claim alleging he was defamed by a Malahide pharmacy and ordered him to pay the legal costs of his unsuccessful action.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court said she accepted the contention of barrister Shane English that William Hanks had failed to produce any evidence he had been defamed, and dismissed his case.

Mr English, who appeared with Newman Solicitors for McCabes Pharmacy, Malahide Shopping Centre, told the judge it was Hanks’ own mother, non-practising barrister Patricia Wilson Hanks, who had published an allegedly defamatory text to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI).