'Sensationalist' news articles endangering the 'Viper', court told

A Dublin criminal known as the Viper today sought an order in the High Court to prevent the Sunday World newspaper from publishing “sensationalist” articles about him.

Martin Foley said through his lawyers that the article, which accused him of being a garda informer, posed a real and serious risk to his life.

Senior Counsel Michael O’Higgins, representing Foley, said he would also be seeking declaration that the Sunday World article breached his client’s right to life under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, exposed him to the threat of violence and infringed his right to privacy.

The article, headlined ‘Foley’s a dead man walking’, with the sub heading ‘Viper entrusted by other gang members’ was published on December 5 last year as part of a series of extracts from the updated version of Crimelords by Sunday World journalist Paul Williams.

Mr O’Higgins said the article stated that reliable sources believed Mr Foley was protected by a senior member of Garda Siochána and that he had astonishingly avoided three major drug busts by leaving the scene minutes beforehand.

Mr O’Higgins said this was then followed by a quote from an anonymous garda detective who said: “I have always predicted that Foley will not die in his sleep.”

He added that this exposed Mr Foley to danger from psychopaths in the criminal underworld who might believe he was a garda informer. “That passage is something which is going to target Mr Foley,” he said.

Mr O’Higgins said the article also contained the allegation that Foley had decided to pay drug money to Sinn Féin. He said this was likely to put his life at risk from the political enemies of the IRA.

The court heard that Foley was seeking the order to prevent any further article about him in the Sunday World because, as a convicted criminal, his chance of successfully taking a defamation case were slim.

Mr O’Higgins said every citizen had the right under the European Convention of Human Rights that articles which caused a real and substantial risk to their life would not be published.

“It doesn’t matter whether Mr Foley was the biggest blaggard or thug, that’s not the issue.”

In its replying affidavit the Sunday World said Foley had a long history of criminality which included 45 convictions in total.

“The plaintiff is a notorious and self-professed crimelord and a major drug dealer referred to as the Viper,” it said.

The court heard that Foley had served two years in jail for violently assaulting a garda and had recently been convicted of breaching the peace for threatening bar staff in a Dublin pub.

The affidavit stated that Foley was a person who orchestrates and deals in terror and violence and that any threat on his life is linked to his continuing involvement in crime rather than the article published in the Sunday World.

It said its reporter, Paul Williams, had been subjected to a campaign of intimidation which garda sources believed were being conducted by Mr Foley.

A hoax bomb was planted under Mr Williams’ car outside his home in November 2003 and he, his family and 150 neighbours had to be evacuated while the Army carried out a controlled explosion on the device.

Mr Williams is now under 24-hour garda protection.

Mr O’Higgins said the allegation that Mr Foley had given drug money to Sinn Féin, which was published in an article in the Sunday World in April last year, had been embarrassing for the party and potentially life threatening for his clients.

“The republican movement has shown it has veering methods of dealing with embarrassment,” he said.

Mr O’Higgins said some of the methods were legal while other less subtle methods included anything from punishment beatings to execution.

Senior Counsel Owen McCullough, representing the Sunday World, said Foley did not have an arguable case.

He said the criminal could not claim to be living in fear due to the Sunday World article when there had already been three attempts on his life in the past.

The court heard that in 1995 Foley was shot in the arm and stomach, in 1996 he was shot in the back and finger while in 2000 he was shot while swimming in Terenure pool. He was also abducted by the IRA in 1984.

Mr McCullough said Foley had avoided giving a sworn affidavit in a bid to secure a temporary injunction against the Sunday World from publishing articles about him.

“If people had given evidence, he’s opened to being cross-examined as to how he would realistically say he had any fear of what the Sunday World was writing when unfortunately there have been previous attempts on his life in the past,” he said.

He added that if a journalist established a major criminal was a Garda informer, it was in the public interest for him to reveal it.

Mr McCullough said Foley had appeared on a report on RTE’s Today Tonight programme in 1984 wearing a balaclava while speaking on behalf of a group called the Concerned Criminal Action Committee.

He said Foley had no right to prevent the publication of true information about him when he was engaged in publicity like that.

The case is to continue before Judge Peter Kelly in the High Court tomorrow.