A District Court judge who claimed he was described in a Sunday Independentarticle as a "mobile phone freak" has been awarded €25,000 damages for libel by a High Court jury.
The question of who pays the costs of the proceedings - estimated at €750,000 - will be decided next Tuesday.
Judge Joseph Mangan, of Ennis, Co Clare, had alleged he was libelled in the front page article by journalist Mr Gene Kerrigan, published on March 22nd, 1998.
The action was heard by Ms Justice Mella Carroll and a jury over five days. The jury brought in its verdict after an absence of two hours this afternoon.
The jury was asked if the article complained of bore all or any of five defamatory meanings which were set out on the issue paper. They replied Yes to one question and No to four.
The jury found the article bore the defamatory meaning that Judge Mangan had acted in a manner inconsistent with the proper discharge of his judicial functions. The jury found the article did not mean that Judge Mangan had brought the courts into disrepute; that he was not a fit person to hold judicial office; that he was a mobile phone freak who was given to engage in inconsistent behavour; or that he had engaged in ludicrous behaviour.
As the jury answered Yes to at least one question, it proceeded to assess damages at €25,000.
The lengthy Sunday Independentarticle referred to three District Court judges. It stated: "The 'genitalia' judge (Paul McDonnell) and the two mobile phone freaks (Terry Finn and Joe Mangan) may well have brought the courts into disrepute, but its not entirely their fault."
A later paragraph said: "As for Judge Finn throwing a journalist into a cell because the poor hack's mobile phone rang; and Judge Mangan, on the same day in a different court, leaving his mobile phone switched on so he could take a call in mid case; it is obvious that a little consistency is called for."
A short time before the article was published, Judge Mangan's mobile phone went off while he was sitting at Tallow court, Co Waterford. The High Court was told he left the bench for a short time with the court clerk to deal with the call which he was expecting and which related to an urgent health board application. The judge arranged to sit later that day in another court to deal with the application and then resumed the Tallow sitting.
On the same day, it was stated, another judge sitting in a District Court in Dublin had ordered that a journalist be temporarily detained when his mobile phone went off in court.