Communications consultant Monica Leech told the High Court today she has spent four and a half years trying to clear her name of false allegations she had an affair with a Government minister.
Ms Leech also described as "a lie" a newspaper report she secured a contract with the Department of the Environment in controversial circumstances. She won that contract "on merit" following an open competitive process, she said.
She was giving evidence on the second day of her libel action against Independent Newspapers the
Evening Herald's 2004 coverage of her work as special adviser to then environment minister Martin Cullen.
Remarking there "may be something of the elephant in the corner" about the question, her counsel Declan Doyle SC asked Ms Leech: "Did you have an affair with Mr Cullen?"
Ms Leech said she was not having an affair with the Minister and had spent the last few years trying to get justice from the Herald. "At this stage, for you to ask me about the elephant in the corner, it shows the damage that has been done that you feel the need to clear that up," she told counsel.
Ms Leech is suing over articles published in eight editions of the
Evening Heraldbetween November and December 2004. She claims those articles falsely alleged she got government public relations contracts because she was having an affair with Minister Cullen.
Ms Leech (49) of Otteran Place, South Parade, Waterford, has brought the proceedings against Independent Newspapers (Irl) Ltd which denies libel. It has also pleaded there are legitimate questions as to whether various contracts secured by Ms Leech or her firm were influenced by her alleged connections with Minister Cullen.
Yesterday, Ms Leech told the court a new PR business she had just launched with a partner never got off the ground as a result of the "catastrophe" of the
Heraldarticles.
Having spent several years working as a sole trader, particularly in promoting her native Waterford and as a voluntary president of the local Chamber of Commerce, she said she was invited to promote projects in 2000 on behalf of the Office of Public Works (OPW). Mr Cullen then had responsibility for the OPW as a junior minister.
When she saw the first of the
Heraldarticles on November 30th 2004, she felt it was "seedy", sexist and demeaning to her in that it described her as "the pretty PR executive".
"I felt completely and utterly offended to the very core," she said. She was disgusted somebody would make up a controversy about her in "a seedy dirty little campaign, typical of tabloid tramps".
"I do not know what the motivations were but I was hand picked and they were wrecking my life and they just did not give a damn about it."
The use of the words "PR girl" in another story were insulting and degrading and would not have been used if it was a male PR, she said. It suited the
Heraldto use the word girl as she, a 44-year-old woman, was not as likely to have an affair with the Minister, she said.
When Mr Cullen became a senior Minister in 2003, she said she met him by accident in Waterford and, over coffee in a local hotel he asked her to provide services for the Department of Environment as he was not happy with the tone and style of communications in his new Department.
She was the only company to be offered a six-month contract and was told, after the six months, she would have to compete with other firms for a longer contract. The
Herald's claims that this longer contract was secured in controversial circumstances was a lie.
Dealing with the paper's claims she was a Fianna Fáil activist, Ms Leech said she had never been party political and had turned down an invitation from Mary Harney to run for the PDs in 1999. After turning this down for family and privacy reasons, she ultimately "paid the price anyway."
Ms Leech also said she felt very sorry for Mr Cullen's estranged wife who was "dragged" into the Herald stories. She had not responded to the
Herald's request for comments because she knew this would be further oxygen for their campaign.
The articles continued to get "worse and worse", she said. They were "a tsunami of lies" which people up and down the country started to believe. She saw staff in a hotel "having a great old laugh" at the story about her. A woman in a restaurant also abused her and, when she told the woman to return to her table and the story was not true, the woman hit her on the back of the head.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Eamonn De Valera and a jury.