A €38,000 libel action taken by an ex-Army captain and Defence Forces press officer against the Minister for Defence ended suddenly yesterday after counsel for the defence threatened to play a tape recording in court of a meeting he had with a colleague.
Dr Tom Clonan, now a lecturer in the school of media in the Dublin Institute of Technology, had claimed that the Army engaged in a "process of character assassination" on him after his research on alleged bullying and sexual harassment in the Defence Forces was published in the media.
Dr Clonan, of Booterstown, Co Dublin, had told the Circuit Civil Court that he had carried out the research on the basis that the findings would not be published. He did not leak the results to the media, but answered questions when approached by journalists.
However, Jim O'Callaghan, for the defence, produced a tape of Dr Clonan "saying things" to a Capt Hanley in 2001 just weeks before the research findings were published in the Sunday World. Mr O'Callaghan said the tape indicated Dr Clonan's state of mind as to what was going to happen.
Dr Clonan (38), who retired from the Army in November 2000, told the court that he had no knowledge that the conversation had been recorded.
Senior counsel Marc de Blacam, for Dr Clonan, said it was "an underhand tactic" by the defence as the tape had not been disclosed as evidence before the case began. He requested an adjournment to read a transcript, and upon resumption he informed the court that the case was to be struck out. There was to be no order in relation to costs, he told Judge Katherine Delahunt.
Earlier, the court heard that the findings of Dr Clonan's doctoral thesis suggested widespread bullying and sexual harassment of female soldiers in the Army. Results indicated that 59 of the 60 female personnel whom Dr Clonan interviewed made some kind of allegation "up to and including sexual assault and rape".
On August 5th, 2001, the Sunday World broke the story, and it was picked up by several other newspapers, the court heard.
The Army's press officer, Comdt Ciaran McDaid, later issued a briefing to senior commanding officers accusing Dr Clonan of engaging in a "well planned and assisted effort" to maximise damage and embarrassment to the Defence Forces. Dr Clonan claimed this memo was libellous and was leaked to at least one newspaper.
Dr Clonan claimed he had been subjected to abuse by former colleagues as a result of it. "I have effectively been sent to Coventry by my former colleagues over this."