‘You are the author of your own misfortune’

Newspaper’s legal team claims ex-footballer’s own conduct has gotten him into difficulties.

The newspaper which called a former Kildare footballer “the biggest swinger in town” claimed yesterday in its defence of a defamation action that the plaintiff was the author of his own misfortune.

Brian ‘Spike’ Nolan, aged 49, of Goatstown, Dublin, claims the Sunday World both defamed him and breached his right to privacy.

He said he never organised swingers parties as suggested by the newspaper on July 15, 2012, and March 3, 2013.

Rossa Fanning, for the Sunday World, cross-examined the plaintiff at length yesterday.

He said: “You say that this was brought down on your family. Who brought it on your family?”

Mr Nolan replied: “Well, I did not ask for it, it was done to me.”

Mr Fanning said: “It was done to you? Are you familiar with the idea of accepting responsibility for your actions? If you did not attend sex parties the articles would never have appeared.

"If you did not pose for photos voluntarily in a compromising position, no photos of you in compromising positions would have been published.”

Mr Nolan replied: “I posed, it was just for craic, to be honest, I didn’t think it would be thrown out to the public.”

Mr Fanning said: “You are the author of your own misfortune. It was your own conduct in attending adult sex parties which has gotten you into these difficulties.”

Mr Nolan said: “You cannot publish articles about what I did not do. I cannot agree with you that I was the author of my own misfortune. I did not know. I was told these were private parties and no photos would be handed out.”

Mr Fanning asked: “How could you have a reasonable expectation of privacy if you were allowing photos of yourself to be shared with 26 people whom you had never met before at a sex party?”

The plaintiff replied: “They are inside the community of people doing the same and that is where they stay. I even forgot the photo was taken.”

Mr Fanning asked: “Is that because of drink?”

Mr Nolan said he would have been drinking and would have had maybe a bottle of wine.

Mr Fanning said: “You were consenting to photos being shared with 26 strangers, you forfeited your entitlement to privacy by allowing yourself to be photographed at a sex party with a lot of people you did not know.”

Mr Nolan said: “No, that is not right that I forfeited my right.”

He added that he never agreed for it to be put in a newspaper.

Mr Fanning suggested to Mr Nolan that his case against the Sunday World is to the effect that he had only gone to four sex parties and had put a halt to it because it was not to his taste or was uncomfortable with it.

Mr Fanning went on to ask: “In any of the photos that were taken at the parties is there any evidence of discomfort on your part at your surroundings?”

Mr Nolan replied: “No.”

Mr Fanning asked: “Are you standing over the proposition that what was going on was not suitable to your taste?”

He replied: “I am standing over that, yes, I am.”

Mr Fanning said that one of the photographs in the Sunday World, captioned “cheeky boy”, showed him against the lower back region of a lady in a white top.

Counsel said: “You carry the appearance in no way of someone in any way discomforted by the surroundings in the photograph.”

Mr Nolan replied: “I was told ‘go in and get that photograph’. I forgot about the photograph. That was the first party I went to. It was all new to me, it was a jokey thing. I remember it being said that no photos would be given to anyone outside the parties.”

Mr Fanning asked: “Who gave you the expectation of privacy?”

Mr Nolan replied: “It’s the rule that no one who attends these parties that no photo would be given out.”

Mr Nolan disagreed with the proposition that he was a newsworthy person at the time the articles were published, but accepted he was a newsworthy person when he was playing inter-county football for Kildare in the 1990s and when he was convicted of money laundering in 2002. Of that offence, he said he was naive and easily led.

Mr Justice Tony O’Connor said, following two days of evidence at the High Court in Cork, that he would take up the case at the High Court in Dublin on March 24 and would require written submissions from the lawyers.