O’Neill says no Sinn Féin policy to ‘silence anybody’ after Kelly legal action

Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill has said her party has no “joined-up or concerted effort” to silence anybody through legal action after MLA Gerry Kelly was ordered to pay the costs of a failed defamation action.

Ms O’Neill said individual party members were entitled to decide themselves if they wanted to pursue legal actions. She was speaking after a High Court judge in Belfast threw out a claim brought by Mr Kelly against a journalist, ruling it was “scandalous, frivolous and vexatious”.

He was ordered to pay costs in the case he had brought against Dr Malachi O’Doherty, who had in 2019 said Mr Kelly shot a prison officer during an escape from the Maze prison in 1983. The Sinn Féin representative had claimed the comments broadcast during radio interviews had damaged his reputation, but master of Belfast High Court Evan Bell said books written by the MLA about the prison escape meant his libel action could not succeed.

Sinn Féin politicians have regularly been criticised for launching legal actions against journalists and elected representatives. Speaking to reporters outside Belfast City Hall, Ms O’Neill said: “Any of us – whether you’d be in public office or a citizen of our society – everyone’s entitled to defend their good name. If you feel like you’ve been defamed at any time, then you are entitled, as the law says, to take a case. I commend that to anyone who feels that that’s where they need to be.

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“In terms of any concerted effort or deliberate attempt on our part – I’m Sinn Féin vice -resident, I’m a senior member of a party, and I can assure you there is no joined-up or concerted effort to silence anybody.”

In the High Court ruling this week Mr Bell said the libel proceedings brought by Mr Kelly bore the hallmarks of a strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapp) case. “On the balance of probabilities, therefore, the proceedings do bear the hallmarks of a Slapp and have been initiated not for the genuine purposes of vindicating a reputation injured by defamatory statements but rather for the purpose of stifling the voices of his troublesome critics.” – PA