The Evening Herald yesterday paid a voluntary £10,000 contribution in a contempt-of-court hearing over an article published in relation to a sexual assault trial which was abandoned in July.
Mr Denis McCullough SC, defending, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he had been instructed to apologise for the article, entitled "Rough Justice" which, he said, had been published in error.
The Evening Herald accepted there had been "serious factual inaccuracies" in the article as it appeared in the newspaper, and this was regretted. The article had criticised the trial judge's handling of the criminal case.
Judge Kieran O'Connor accepted the paper's apology and agreed that it should make a voluntary £10,000 contribution, 75 per cent of which is to be paid to the Heart Foundation.
The remaining £2,500 is to go towards the cost of the solicitor and barrister who represented the formerly accused man during two hearings relating to the contempt issue. The criminal case against the man was dropped by the State yesterday.
During the sexual assault trial the alleged victim was under cross-examination when she shouted at the accused man, stormed out of the witness box and slammed the door of the court as she left.
Judge O'Connor had ruled that the State would have to have her psychologically assessed before the case could be brought before the court again.
Speaking to Liz Ryan, the author of the article, Judge O'Connor said he had felt the alleged victim was not well and that was why he had ordered the medical report.
He said he considered Ms Ryan's article had been contempt of court. He had been concerned that the article would make women and young girls apprehensive that if they came to court to give evidence about alleged sexual assault they would be dealt with in an appalling fashion.
Referring to contempt proceedings, Judge O'Connor said: "This should be reported to act as a warning to journalists who feel disposed to write this type of article."
He said there had been "serious factual inaccuracies in an article designed to inflame". The article dealt with a sexual assault trial which had to be abandoned after the alleged victim stormed out of court. Ms Ryan had not been in court for the case, the judge said.
Mr McCullough said Ms Ryan was a columnist with the paper, and all her articles were vetted by a solicitor who made all necessary changes before publication.
The solicitor had made a number of changes to the article, including removing references to rape. At the time the Evening Herald was changing over to a new computer system and, due to a computer error, the original, uncorrected version was published. New procedures were now in place to ensure such a mistake could not occur again.
The article appeared after the trial was abandoned. The accused man's defence team said the article was inaccurate and could make it difficult for their client to get a fair retrial.
The article suggested incorrectly that their client faced a rape trial and suggested the alleged victim's reaction in court which led to the jury being discharged was "entirely consistent with her having being raped".