Court considers granting lawyers for Denis O’Brien access to consultancy staff's phones

The High Court is considering whether to allow lawyers for Denis O’Brien to have access to the personal mobile phones of employees at Red Flag Consulting.

An order was made last month allowing the forensic imaging of computers at the consultancy, as part of the businessman’s action against the firm.

Mr O’Brien is accusing Red Flag of conspiracy against him, and wants access to the IT systems of the firm.

The case centres on a dossier of material received anonymously by Denis O'Brien which he says is defamatory.

Lawyers for Red flag say the dossier is theirs, but deny any wrongdoing.

The argument before the court centres on whether the personal devices of staff working at Red Flag come under the court order for forensic imaging.

Judge MacEochaidh says work practices have changed to the extent that employees often do work on their personal devices, but he has raised concerns about the intrusion on staff privacy if all data on their phones were copied.

The case continues.