A man has been arrested by gardaí for questioning about false allegations against the music industry manager Louis Walsh.
The arrest follows news that a man who claimed he had been groped by Walsh during an alleged sexual assault in a nightclub toilet has withdrawn the allegation.
The suspect arrested this morning was detained at a house in Navan, Co Meath, and is being questioned at the local Garda station.
He was arrested under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act on suspicion of making a false statement of complaint to gardaí in which the allegations against Walsh were made.
The man claimed he was groped by Walsh in the gent’s toilets of Krystle night in Dublin's south inner city in April after a concert in the O2 by boy band Westlife, who are managed by Walsh.
In a statement released by a public relations company before news of this morning's arrest broke, Walsh, who is a judge on the TV series X-Factor, said he would now pursue a libel action against the newspaper that ran the original story last week.
"I have been informed by An Garda Síochána that I am now no longer under investigation," the statement read.
"I have robustly maintained from the outset that this alleged incident did not occur. While I obviously welcome today's confirmation from the Garda that the matter has been dropped I remain outraged that this story ran in the first place in the Sun and I have instructed my libel lawyer to vigorously pursue legal action against the paper and they will also be taking action in relation to a number of other equally serious related matters.
"I have no intention of letting this matter rest until I have received total and absolute vindication. This has been a hugely distressing time for me but I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues for their support and I am now just looking forward to getting back to work."
