THE HIGH Court has ruled that the Sunday Worldis not entitled to require model Andrea Roche to divulge material she may have relating to contact between her and socialite Katy French shortly before her death.
Ms Roche is suing the Sunday Worldfor libel over an article published on December 9th, 2007. She alleges the paper wrongly claimed she was to be interviewed by gardaí over Ms French's death, which had occurred days earlier.
Ms French died in hospital on December 6th, 2007.
The Sunday Worldhad asked the master of the High Court to order Ms Roche to make discovery of any documents, including phone records, relating to any contact between her and French 48 hours before her death.
The master refused to do so and his decision was upheld yesterday by the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, who said a defendant was not entitled to “go fishing” for other matters through discovery.