A LEADING British libel lawyer last night described the Reynolds jury decision as unprecedented. "I have never heard of no damages at all," said Mr David Hooper, a solicitor with Biddle & Co of London. "The fact that the Sunday Times paid £5,000 into court indicates they thought it a reasonably serious libel if they lost. No libel damages at all is very, very odd."
While the jury's approach to Mr Reynolds is unprecedented, finding in favour of a litigant but awarding them minute damages is not unknown.
In 1964 a Dr Dering, a German who worked inside Auschwitz concentration camp during the second World War, was awarded half a penny damages when he sued over a suggestion that he carried out medical experiments on inmates of the camp.
The same award was given to Dr Maurice Bloom in March 1977 when he sued a British Sunday newspaper which reported that he had signed a certificate for a woman to have a therapeutic abortion.
Another doctor, John Brooks, became known as the spanking colonel when his preferred pastime with young women was revealed in a Sunday newspaper. He sued and won but was also awarded a ha'penny.
In 1974 a member of the British aristocracy, Lady Docker, was awarded half a penny when she sued the Sunday Express, which reported that she had used "naughty words".
Mr Hooper said the absence of any damages for Mr Reynolds indicated that the jury "took the view that the action should never have been brought and that the libel was purely technical".