A Co Donegal solicitor has secured €75,000 damages and costs after a High Court jury last night found he was libelled as a result of being mistakenly named in a newspaper as a man charged with 114 child sex abuse offences.
Frank Dorrian (38), a solicitor from Letterkenny, had sued Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd over a report published in the Irish Independent on March 29th, 2001, under the headline: "Ex-school teacher on abuse charges." The article referred to "a retired primary school teacher" being granted legal aid on charges of child sexual abuse.
It said: "Frank Dorrian (61) was served with a book of evidence at Donegal District Court and remanded on continuing bail until June. He is charged with 114 counts of indecent and sexual assault between 1978 and 1994."
The defence denied libel and pleaded the name "Frank Dorrian" was a "production error", incorrectly inserted as the name of the accused person in the court report. Mr Dorrian was the solicitor representing the accused.
After four hours the jury found that Mr Dorrian was libelled and awarded damages of 75,000. They found the words published referred to Mr Dorrian and meant he had been the subject of a Garda inquiry into crimes of child sexual abuse. They also found the words meant he had been arrested and charged with those crimes and was served with a book of evidence supporting the charges. They also found the words meant Mr Dorrian was and is degenerate.
Addressing the jury at the close of the evidence yesterday, senior counsel Declan Doyle said Independent Newspapers had arrogantly refused to accept the mistake and had suggested to Mr Dorrian that he was being opportunistic.
Closing the case for the defence, senior counsel Shane Murphy said Mr Dorrian would not have been identified by reasonable people who read the article. Counsel said the paper had admitted it made a mistake and had offered to apologise and pay a sum of money to charity.