An appeal over document discovery orders granted to former government minister Pat Carey for his action alleging breach of privacy in newspaper articles has been resolved at the Court of Appeal.
A hearing date has yet to be set for Mr Carey’s action over articles published in the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent in November 2015 which reported that a Garda investigation was taking place into allegations of child sexual abuse made by a number of complainants against a former government minister.
Mr Carey served as a TD between 1997 and 2011 and as a government minister between 2010 and 2011 before he lost his seat in the 2011 general election, the High Court’s Ms Justice Nuala Butler previously said in her judgment on the discovery matters.
At the time of publication of the articles, he was Fianna Fáil’s national director of elections and involved in some charitable and not-for-profit organisations, Ms Justice Butler said.
Mr Carey claims it is evident from the detail relating to the investigation set out in the articles that the sources referred to could only be Garda sources, the judge said. He claims, although the former government minister was not named, that he was identifiable from the entirety of the articles as the person concerned and, consequently, he became the subject of speculation, in political circles and more generally as to who the suspect might be.
Rumour and innuendo
He claims that resulted in his being placed in the invidious position of having to address public speculation surrounding his involvement by issuing a statement dealing with those allegations, about which he had no knowledge.
Given the level of rumour and innuendo, he said he felt obliged to step down from the various positions he held and did so while the investigation was under way.
The High Court was told the Garda investigation had concluded and the Director of Public Prosecutions had informed Mr Carey no charges were to be brought against him arising out of the allegations.
Mr Carey has taken proceedings against Independent News & Media plc and Independent Newspapers Ireland Ltd seeking damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages, over alleged breach of privacy and confidentiality. He has also sued the Garda Commissioner and the State over alleged disclosure of confidential information during a criminal investigation.
The media defendants admit publication of articles by Independent News & Media plc but deny the claims of breach of privacy and confidentiality. Among various pleas, they claim Mr Carey was not identified or identifiable from the articles which they plead were true and published in the public interest. Mr Carey’s own statement, they plead, publicly identified him. The other defendants deny the articles were based on information from Garda sources.
Denial reported
After Mr Carey issued his statement, the media defendants published more articles on the allegations in which Mr Carey was named, including articles reporting his denial of the allegations.
The case was before the Court of Appeal on Friday for an appeal by the media defendants against Ms Justice Butler’s order requiring them to make discovery of documents concerning communications over the period May 1st, 2015, to November 15th, 2015, between the media defendants and the Garda, its servants or agents, concerning Mr Carey and/or the matters forming the subject of the article. That, they argued, amounted to requiring them to disclose their sources.
After talks between the sides, Luán O Braonáin SC, for the media defendants, said the parties had agreed the High Court order could be varied. Communications between the media defendants and “any other person” concerning Mr Carey and/or the matters forming the subject of the articles would be discovered and issues of journalistic source privilege would be left over to an inspection process, he outlined.
Remy Farrell SC, for Mr Carey, who was in court, consented to that order.
