The jury in a libel case being taken by a senior Government press officer is due to hear summing up arguments this morning before retiring to consider its verdict.
Ms Mandy Johnston, now head of the Government Information Service, is suing the Star newspaper and journalist John Donlon for libel over an allegedly "desperately suggestive" article in 1996 which could lead people to assume she was a person of "low moral calibre" who would seek to bring down a government in the same manner as English call-girl Mandy Rice-Davis.
The case came before the High Court last Friday. Referring to a photograph alongside the article of call-girl Christine Keeler, nude and sitting astride a chair, Ms Johnston said she believed the use of the photograph was leading.
She also believed the use in the article of words like "sexual shenanigans" and the description of Ms Johnston as "Bertie Ahern's batgirl beavering away" were demeaning to her.
Mr Donlon told the court he believed he was doing Mandy Johnston "a favour" when he wrote the article.
Mr Donlon, now with the Sunday World, said the article was written in a light manner to get away from "the more stodgy political commentaries" in the "more heavy newspapers".
He did not believe it had damaged Ms Johnston, and if he thought it had hurt her, he would have apologised to her.