There is no 'crazy conspiracy' against Denis O'Brien, journalist Tom Lyons tells High Court

Journalist Tom Lyons has told a High Court jury he is not involved in "some crazy conspiracy" to damage businessman Denis O'Brien.

There was nothing unfair or malicious in including Mr O'Brien in articles published by the Sunday Business Post (SBP) in March 2015 concerning a report to the government concerning the exposure of Ireland’s banks in 2008, he said.

Mr O'Brien was included in the articles because he was included in a group of borrowers identified in the report by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), he said.

The articles faithfully reported what was in the report, he added.

The PWC report was the focus of the SBP articles written by Mr Lyons and others which Mr O’Brien alleges defamed him.

In continuing evidence in Mr O’Brien’s action today, Mr Lyons said the use of the word “gang of 22” in one of the articles concerning the Irish banks' 22 top borrowers meant a “group” and was “very obviously not a reference to criminality”.

The 22 were a group of men including some “pretty good guys” like Mr O’Brien who were caught on the wrong side of a property bubble, he said.

He said he did not believe Mr O’Brien’s evidence that he had not read a biography of him written by Siobhán Creaton which, Mr Lyons said, included six references to Mr O’Brien being in a “gang”.

He had no malice against any of the 22, he said. They included some very decent people, some of whom had cost the taxpayer a lot of money and some, like Mr O’Brien, who did not cost the taxpayer money.

He said Mr O’Brien is an “upstanding individual” who had got caught up in the crisis over five years but who paid every interest bill, all his debt to Anglo and ultimately repaid everything.

It is in the public domain that he repaid everything, he said. He is a “good borrower”.

Earlier, Mr Lyons said the Irish banks ended up owing some €64bn, multiples of the exposure they had indicated to PWC when it was preparing the report.

Everyone is talking at the moment about €2bn for the National Children’s Hospital, he said and, to put €64bn in context, that “would build 32 children’s hospitals”.

Articles written by him which named Mr O’Brien among 22 men who between them owed €25.5bn to Irish banks in 2008 were based on the contents of the PWC report, he said.

The articles also included material from the Dáil record in 2008 and “informed comment by me”.

A line in one article stating that PWC “highlights the unfairness of what has happened in Ireland” was his own comment, he said.

“It was unfair,” he said. There was an enormous concentration of debt around just a few individuals and the PWC report said the 22 top borrowers owed a cumulative €25.5bn.

Asked about his conclusion in that article that “the numbers and individual stories are telling and disturbing”, he said, if you look at what happened to this country, “it is telling and disturbing”.

Mr Lyons said he had commissioned Gavin Sheridan, journalist and transparency campaigner, to write another article arising from the PWC report.

Mr Lyons also said he had chosen the headline “People of Influence, people of blame” for that article.

He took responsibility for that article and defended it 100%.

Today is the sixth day of Mr O’Brien’s action against Post Publications Ltd, publishers of the SBP over articles whose focus was the PWC report provided to the government in November 2008. It was obtained in 2015 by the newspaper but destroyed by Mr Lyons afterwards to protect the source.

The articles include a front page article headlined "22 men and €26 billion" with a subheading: "The secret report that convinced Cowen the banks weren't bust."

Mr O'Brien claims the articles wrongly meant he was among 22 borrowers who “wrecked the country” and injured his reputation.

The defendant denies defamation, denies the words complained of mean what Mr O'Brien says and denies malicious publication. It has also pleaded "fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest".

Today, Mr Lyons was asked detailed questions concerning the content of the articles.

He said a front-page article, written by him and headlined “22 men and €26 billion”, was a reference to the top 22 borrowers, as referred to in the PWC report, who owed a total €26 billion between them to Irish banks in 2008, he said.

He said the word “they” in a strapline, “The report they didn’t want you to see”, was a reference to the Government. References to the report as “secret” arose because the report was described as “confidential” on each of its pages.

A “Top Secret” graphic featuring a list of names, including Mr O’Brien, was a photoshopped list of people and was not from any aspect of the report, he said.

The source of quotations used in a pen picture of Mr O’Brien in another article was the PWC report itself, he said.

When he referred to “developer kings” in the articles, he was referring to big developers in Ireland.

The articles written by him were a combination of the PWC report content, material on the Dáil record concerning then Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s references to the report and “informed comment by me” which included “stating the obvious” in relation to the situation in 2008.

The case is continuing.