BBC lawyers seek stay on damages and costs orders in Gerry Adams defamation case
BBC
are seeking a stay on costs and damages orders made in favour of former
Sinn Féin
leader
Gerry Adams
after he won a defamation action against the broadcaster.
The stay is being sought to allow time for the BBC to consider whether to appeal last Friday's finding by a
High Court
jury that it defamed Mr Adams by publishing a claim he had sanctioned the murder of a British agent.
The jury awarded Mr Adams €100,000 in damages
to vindicate and restore his reputation.
Following the verdict, Mr Justice Alexander Owens made costs order in favour of Mr Adams. The amount of costs, which has yet to be decided, has been estimated at up to €3 million for the 21-day action.
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At the High Court on Monday morning, barrister Hugh McDowell, for the BBC, asked Mr Justice Owens to hear the stay application, to be moved by senior counsel Eoin McCullough, later on Monday. The judge said he would hear the matter at 2pm.
In his action, Mr Adams claimed the 2016 BBC Spotlight programme and a related article defamed him by falsely accusing him of giving 'the final say' in the murder of MI5 informant
Denis Donaldson
by dissident republicans at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006.
Mr Adams described the allegation as a 'grievous smear'. The BBC denied defamation.
The jury agreed, as Mr Adams had pleaded in his claim, that words published in the programme and article were understood to mean he sanctioned and approved the murder.
BBC had argued the claim against Mr Adams was couched as an allegation, but the jury rejected the defence that the publication of the allegation was fair, reasonable and in the public interest.
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