The Ukrainian woman who survived the car crash in which Liam Lawlor died is seeking an apology from up to seven newspapers over their coverage of the accident, writes Paul Cullen
The Irish Times understands that Julia Kushnir, who was working as a legal assistant and interpreter to Mr Lawlor in Moscow, will issue a statement through an Irish legal firm today.
Ms Kushnir is expected to seek prominently placed apologies in each of the publications for their inaccurate coverage of the crash. Legal sources say she is likely to sue for damages if the newspapers do not comply.
The Sunday Independent, using information provided by the Observer's correspondent in Moscow, wrongly suggested that Mr Lawlor was in the company of a teenage prostitute when he died. It has since apologised unreservedly to the dead politician's family for the story, which was "lifted" by most other Sunday newspapers.
Mr Lawlor, whose body was flown home early this morning, will be buried in Lucan tomorrow.
Yesterday, the Observer, which had earlier insisted its story had reported "accurately and in good faith" comments by the Moscow police, also admitted it had erred.
In a statement, the newspaper said "serious discrepancies" had emerged in the account provided by police to its correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh.
"In the light of these discrepancies we have removed the story published in the Irish edition of the Observer from our website. We would like to apologise for the inaccuracies in the story and for the distress the story caused."
Paton Walsh also broke his silence yesterday to stress that he had "no hand" in drafting the story that appeared in the Sunday Independent.
Denying that the paper "got the story" from him, he said "an editor" in the Sunday Independent contacted him last Saturday seeking help to confirm reports that Mr Lawlor had died. "I rang an official police spokesperson and relayed only the contents of three conversations with this same person to their newsdesk, stressing at one point that it was only a possibility the girl was a prostitute."
On Monday, a Dublin legal firm was engaged to seek an apology on behalf of Ms Kushnir from the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday World, the Star on Sunday, the Sunday People, the Observer and the News of the World. However, yesterday these instructions were withdrawn and a different firm of lawyers outside Dublin was engaged.
A spokesman for this firm confirmed it had been engaged by Ms Kushnir but declined to elaborate until a statement by his client had been drafted and shown to the Lawlor family before publication.
"We want to make sure that what happened at the weekend doesn't happen again."
He said Ms Kushnir, who has returned home to Prague, is still traumatised by the crash.