The publishers of the Irish Independent and Sunday World were fined €20,000 each by the High Court yesterday following a decision last week that articles published in both newspapers in 2003 were a contempt of court.
The articles related to a man who raped and sexually assaulted his four daughters and were published after he pleaded guilty but before he was sentenced.
The €20,000 fines were imposed by Miss Justice Elizabeth Dunne on Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd, arising from an article in the Irish Independent on April 29th, 2003; and on Sunday Newspapers Ltd, following an article in the Sunday World on May 3rd, 2003. She also imposed a fine of €2,500 each on the editors of the two newspapers - Vincent Doyle, of the Irish Independent and Colm MacGinty, of the Sunday World.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had brought the contempt proceedings. The articles arose after a man pleaded guilty on April 28th, 2003, to 12 sample counts in an indictment which contained a total of 153 counts. He was sentenced on June 20th, 2003, to 10 life sentences for rape and other sentences for sexual assault, all to run concurrently. The Court of Criminal Appeal later approved the sentences.
In her judgment last week, Miss Justice Dunne concluded the articles were a contempt of court in that they were highly prejudicial to the accused and interfered with the administration of justice.
Following submissions from counsel yesterday in relation to mitigation and affidavits submitted by the defence, the judge said she noted the apologies that had been given and accepted that the articles were not sensationalist or objectionable. She also accepted that the defendants did not set out deliberately to interfere with the administration of justice. What had happened was a very rare occurrence. Despite those mitigating factors, she said, the court must mark its disapproval of that type of situation.