Man suing newspaper over hospital birth film report accepts 'emergency' situation

A man suing the Sunday Times for defamation over an opinion piece about him filming the birth of his baby daughter accepts that it may have been an emergency delivery.

Dubai based property broker John McCauley with address in Celbridge, Co Kildare claims the column by journalist Brenda Power wrongly made him look like ‘some kind of headcase running around with a camera’.

Power wrote an article in the Sunday Times about McCauley after he lost an action for damages against a hospital and a midwife who interrupted him filming the birth of his first daughter.

The 46 year old says he was disgusted by the opinion piece from March 2009 which he claims meant that he showed no consideration or care for his partner Jurgita and their baby.

Under cross examination by lawyers for the Sunday Times which denies defamation, John McAuley said he had received permission from staff at Mount Carmel to film the birth.

He did not believe the delivery by caesarean section was an emergency but accepts that it was if that is the term used by medical staff.

He claims the midwife at the birth was very cold and abrupt. He says she was professional in carrying out her duties but not in her manner.