Kiss for Rocca the only emotion after verdict

THE judge sent the jury out with three questions and a calculation. The questions were: Did Cathal Ryan assault Michelle Rocca? If so, was he acting in defence of Sarah Linton? If so again, did he use more than necessary force?

The calculation was the damages, compensatory and aggravated, that might follow upon those answers. Mr Justice Moriarty made clear that if the jurors felt Ms Rocca had been to some extent "the authoress of her own misfortune" they might reflect that in a reduction of any aggravated damages they considered due.

When the jury returned after just under two hours, the answers were: yes, yes, yes and £7,500, - the last one accompanied by a note that no aggravated damages had been included.

The announcement left the courtroom heavy with anti climax, with neither Cathal Ryan nor Michelle Rocca betraying much emotion. The plaintiff's solicitor, Mr Gerard Kean, moved among the Rocca family, planting congratulatory kisses on the cheeks of Michelle's sisters and then of the plaintiff herself, who looked back at him uncertainly.

It had taken six intense days in Court No 4 to sort out the truth of three minutes of madness in a bedroom at Blackhall Stud in March 1992. By the end of the trial, the number of jurors was down to 11 due to an illness. When they delivered their verdicts, there were almost twice that many reporters facing them, reflecting the huge public interest the bitter trial had generated.

Summarising the evidence before he sent the jury out, Mr Justice Moriarty said that "inevitably, the case revealed the considerable animus that has developed in a relationship which was once warm and passionate, but has now become sadly frayed."

Lest the jury had forgotten, he cited an example of this animus from either side: he had plenty off examples to choose from, but selected the plaintiff's repeated remarks about her former lover's drinking, and the defendant's aside about the "cocktailish" dress which she had worn to the Blackhall Stud party.

He reminded the jurors that they had heard much mention in the evidence of dinners in plush restaurants and parties in high society. But he cautioned the jurors against taking the approach that "because these are big people, you should award big damages.

He also warned against allowing the public controversy about violence against women to colour their judgment. "This is not some sort of iconographic test."

He said Ms Rocca's injuries were not as serious as many of the personal injuries that came before the courts every day. Indeed, the broken nose and cuts and bruises might not be considered inordinately serious at all if suffered by one footballer in a collision with another. But in Ms Rocca's circumstances they might be considered much more serious and the jury was entitled to consider the physical discrepancy between "Miss Rocca, a woman, then in her early 30s, and Cathal Ryan, a man of 15 1/2 stone."

Earlier, the opposing lawyers had summarised their cases - both, ironically, dwelling on the need to protect women from violence. Ms Rocca had been portrayed by the defence as "some sort of female Tarzan," said her counsel, Mr Nicholas Kearns. But recounting her claims that she had been "punched, kicked and held by her neck to the ground" by Cathal Ryan, he said "no man is entitled to do that to a woman. That is the bottom line in this case."

Defence counsel, Mr Garrett Cooney, concentrated on Sarah Linton, about whom he waxed lyrical: "Wasn't she a lady?" he asked the jury. "Wasn't she wholesome?" Of Cathal Ryan's actions in defence of her, he concluded: "He did what any man, calling himself a man, would do."

Rocca was awarded damages of £7,500 her action for assault her former partner, Mr Cathal Ryan, the deputy chairman of Ryanair, in the High Court.

The jury found that Mr Ryan had acted in defence of Ms Sarah Linton but that the force used by him exceeded what was, in all the circumstances, necessary to restrain Ms Rocca.

The jury of six women and five men had returned its verdict following absence of nearly two hours. One woman juror had been absent through sickness in the last two days.

When the jury's decision was announced, Mr Justice Moriarty adjourned the question of costs until next Friday, February 21st.

The jury found that Mr Ryan assaulted Ms Rocca in a bedroom during a party at Blackhall Stud, near Clane, in the early hours of March 22nd, 1992.

The jury also found that, Mr Ryan had acted in defence of Ms Sarah Linton, who was stated to behave in a bed where Mr Ryan was also lying at the time of the incident.

However, the jury also answered "yes" to the question: did the force used by the defendant exceed what was, in all the circumstances, necessary to restrain Mr Rocca.