High Court to decide on defamation action

A man who lost a legal action against a midwife for interrupting his filming of the birth of his child will find out today if he can proceed with another court case - this time for defamation.

John McAuley of Beattie Park, Celbridge, Co. Kildare claims an article about the original proceedings by journalist Brenda Power in the Sunday Times made him look like "an idiot".

Mr McAuley claims he was defamed in the March 2009 article which appeard in the Sunday Times shortly after the dismissal of his Circuit Court action for breach of contract against a midwife and the hospital where his daughter was born.

He alleges that the article means that he was insensistive and had little concern for his newborn daughter and had continued filming during the emergency Caesarean section when the baby had failed to breathe.

But lawyers for the paper and Brenda Power want the case dismissed before it goes to a full jury trial.

They have argued that Mr McAuley has no reasonable chance of winning, they say the article was not defamatory, it was justified and involved fair comment.

High Court President Nicholas Kearns will make his decision today.