COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT Monica Leech has told the High Court that the only true things in an article published about her by the Evening Heraldwere her own name and the name of Minister Martin Cullen. "The rest of it is horseshite," she said.
She said reports of rumours of her having an affair with Mr Cullen had been started by the newspaper’s “campaign” against her.
Counsel for Independent Newspapers, which owns the Herald, told the court that reports of rumours that she was having an affair were first published in Ireland on Sunday(now the Mail on Sunday) and were denied by Mr Cullen.
Ms Leech said that when the Heraldreported the Minister's denials of those stories, instead of saying there was no truth to the affair rumours, it had simply "left them hanging there".
She was being cross-examined on the fourth day of her action against Independent Newspapers (Irl) Ltd over the Herald’s coverage of her work as a special adviser to Mr Cullen when he was minister for the environment and a minister of state with responsibility for the Office of Public Works.
Ms Leech (49), Otteran Place, South Parade, Waterford, claims the Herald, in articles published in November and December 2004, falsely claimed she got government public relations contracts because she was having an affair with the Minister.
Eoin McCullough SC, for the newspaper, put to Ms Leech that, following the affair rumours published in Ireland on Sunday, the Minister had issued a denial.
Ms Leech said that had nothing to do with her and it was up to Mr Cullen to deal with his own case. She had not responded or made denials because she knew what the Heraldwould have done with them.
She had absolutely no problem with inquiries into how public money was being spent but did have a problem with her being “singled out as tabloid fodder”, she said.
Earlier, she said that while there were already five people working in the press office of the Department of Environment when she arrived there, she had a different function and was there to change the way communications to the general public were made.
She said there were a lot of inefficiencies in the way the department worked.
Ms Leech agreed there was no one in this role before she took it on or after she left, but said that this was because the media campaign at the time prevented the department from retaining her.
Dealing with the various articles which the Heraldwrote about her, Mr McCullough suggested the first stories simply said she was a friend and political supporter of Mr Cullen.
Ms Leech said the central suggestion was that she was in an improper sexual relationship with Mr Cullen and had got government contracts on that basis.
The Heraldthought that after its campaign she would just go away, "but I have not gone away and you refuse to apologise and shame on you".
Mr McCullough said a reference to Ms Leech as “pretty” was not unusual in newspaper articles. “Have you ever been referred to as a handsome barrister?” she asked Mr McCullough, who replied that there “may be other reasons for that”.
The articles meant more than that she was just a friend of Mr Cullen, she said.
It was not being suggested she played golf or poker with the Minister and they meant only one thing to her and, she believed, to the majority of people.
The claim that she led a “luxury lifestyle” was also nonsense.
“I canoe at the weekends, what is my luxury lifestyle?”
Ms Leech disputed there was a political storm at the time over her contracts. It was a media storm and the Heraldran with it and built it into something much greater and "seedier" than it was, she said.
Dealing with articles concerning her trips abroad as part of Department of Environment delegations, she said she worked very hard at these conferences and would in no way regard them as a holiday.
Ms Leech said another article included a photo of her wearing a red dress which had been manipulated to give the impression it had a slit down the side and that she was “cavorting around” on government business.
Her son, who was sitting the Leaving Certificate at the time, was “hit over the head” by one of his schoolmates with the newspaper and later had to change schools.
She disagreed that legitimate questions were asked by then Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte about the way contracts had been awarded to her and disputed Mr Rabbittes claims that she was awarded contracts even though she did not have much experience in PR.
She said she had long experience and could work in a variety of areas. “I could not do your job,” she told Mr McCullough, “my morals would get in the way.”
Stephen Knowlton, professor of journalism in DCU, said the 1976 National Union of Journalists code of conduct had prohibited manipulation of photographs for other than legal reasons.
He believed the photo-montage of Ms Leech and Mr Cullen against the New York skyline published in the Heraldwould have been forbidden under the 1976 code but that this code had since been replaced by a new code which had dropped that prohibition.