Jury awards SF political manager Nicky Kehoe €3,500 against RTÉ

By Ann O'Loughlin

A High Court jury has awarded Sinn Féin political manager, Nicky Kehoe, €3,500 against RTÉ for defamation.

It found the national broadcaster was 35 per cent liable for defaming Mr Kehoe, a former IRA member, in a live radio broadcast in October 2015.

It set total damages at €10,000 but found former junior minister and TD Joe Costello, who made the defamatory comment, was 65 per cent liable. However, Mr Kehoe did not sue Mr Costello and there is no judgment against him.

It awarded him €6,500 against former junior minister and TD Joe Costello.

The jury resumed this morning and continued deliberations for over an hour and a half.

This followed more than nine hours of deliberation on Thursday and Friday.

The trial went into its eighth day today over what Mr Kehoe said was a defamatory comment made by former Labour Party TD, Joe Costello, during a live "Saturday with Claire Byrne" radio programme on October 24, 2015.

Mr Costello said a former IRA chief of staff was directing SF members of Dublin City Council how to vote at monthly meetings.

Mr Kehoe's name was first mentioned by another radio panellist, then SF councillor now Deputy Eoin Ó'Broin, who went on to defend Mr Kehoe before Mr Costello withdrew the claim and said instead Mr Kehoe "was" a senior IRA member. Mr Kehoe was not on the radio panel.

RTÉ denied he was defamed and said it is not liable for the matters he complained of.

Mr Kehoe said he had spent 26 years rebuilding his reputation since his release from his last prison sentence for weapons possession and this was undone in "one swipe".

It was "entirely false and untrue" that he was a senior member of the IRA army council and was controlling how its councillors voted, his side argued.

In reply to a number of questions put to the jury, it found the contents of the broadcast, taken as a whole, did not mean Mr Kehoe is a senior member of the army council of the IRA.

The jury found it did not mean he was a member of a criminal organisation.

It found it did not mean Mr Kehoe controls the way in which SF councillors vote at meetings of Dublin City Council on behalf of the army council of the IRA .

The jury said the broadcast did not mean he is involved in deliberate attempt to subvert to control the functioning of a political party and to subvert the operation of Dublin City Cuncil in order to further the aims of an illegal organisation.

However, it did find the broadcast meant he was not a fit person to be involved in the democratic process.

As it had answered yes to one of those questions, the jury then had to decide whether RTÉ was entitled to the benefit of the defence of fair and reasonable publication and it found the broadcaster was not so entitled.

It assessed total general damages at €10,000 with a zero sum in relation to the question of aggravated damages.

It apportioned fault between RTÉ and Mr Costello at 35 and 65 per cent.

Cian Ferriter, for RTÉ, said as this was one of the lowest awards of a High Court jury he would have to take instructions from his client on an appeal in relation to liability and asked the case go back for this and for the issue of costs.

Mr Justice Bernard Barton, who discharged the jury from further duty for ten years, adjourned the matter to a later date.

Afterwards, Mr Kehoe said the verdict had vindicated his reputation and was the reason he came to court. Money was not the issue, he said. He thanked his legal team and members of his community who had come to court to give evidence for him.

Tom McGuire, head of RTÉ Radio One, said the decision was very important as freedom to debate on radio shows such as Claire Byrne's was very important for our democracy.

Ms Byrne said she was happy now to be able to get back to doing her job.

The trial heard evidence from Mr Kehoe and from three community activists who have known and worked with him in the community over the years and from Ms Byrne.

Mr Kehoe told the court his arrest during a shootout with gardai in a foiled kidnap attempt of multi-millionaire Galen Weston in 1983 had to be seen "in the historical context" of the IRA hunger strikes of the time.

Mr Kehoe (62) said he spent 26 years since his release from a 12 year sentence for his involvement in that crime building up his reputation again.

But that was taken away from him again in "one swipe" by the radio show, he said.

"The reputation I have now is different from what I had but I had to work hard to get that reputation".

Claire Byrne was the only witness for RTÉ in the case.

She told the court she thought Mr Costello had "gone doolally" when he made the comments.

Her tone towards Mr Costello, who was a former Minister for Trade and Development, was incredulous, she said

"I remember sitting there thinking where is this coming from.

"I expected him to represent government policy and what he was doing was bringing it down to local politics."

She also told the court she fully stood by the judgment call she made that day not to immediately shut down the debate.

She denied her judgment was fundamentally flawed that day. She said her view of what she did that day has not altered. "I know I acted in the right and proper way".