X Factor judge Louis Walsh has reached €500,000 libel settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), part of News International.
Walsh sued the media group in a defamation case following the publication of a false story that he sexually assaulted a man in a Dublin nightclub was published in the Dublin-based Irish edition of the Sun and in the paper’s main UK edition.
The TV talent show panelist sued for damages, including for aggravated and exemplary damages, over the 23 June 2011 story which ran with the headline ‘Louis Probed Over ‘Sex Attack’ on Man in Loo’. NGN will also pay Walsh’s legal costs of €180,000.
Unemployed dance teacher Leonard Watters, who made the claim, was jailed for six months after he was found guilty of wrongly accusing Walsh of groping him in 2011. The newspaper accepted that the accusations made against Walsh were false, but has denied defamation claiming that it acted fairly.
Upon reaching the settlement the former Westlife manager said he felt vindicated but remained angry at the way he had been treated by the paper.
In a statement read outside Dublin’s Four Courts, Walsh commented: “I have the utmost respect and time for most journalists with whom I've always enjoyed a good relationship.
“I am therefore absolutely gutted and traumatised that these allegations against me should have been published, particularly as I had made it clear at the time there was not one iota of truth in them, that I was totally bewildered as to who would have made up this type of story.
"Although the perpetrator has since been convicted as a result of concocting the allegations, this didn't stop the story being spread all around the world as a result of the Sun's headlines.”
Lawyers acting on behalf of Walsh claimed that Irish Sun journalist, Joanne McElgunn, met with Watters on 15 June 2011 and offered him a sum of money if he agreed to make a complaint to the police about being assaulted by Walsh. The journalist was also alleged to have escorted Watters to the police station paying him €700 then and promising further cash payments once the story ran.
The Sun and the Irish Sun then printed the allegations before Walsh was questioned under caution shortly after the official complaint was made.
Walsh’s case saw a judge order the newspaper to hand over all documents identifying or referring to payments made to Watters. The orders applied to McElgunn, Sun journalist Gordon Smart, Sun editor Dominic Mohan, and former Irish Sun editor Michael McNiff.
Walsh said he had told Gordon Smart, editor of the Sun’s Bizarre showbiz column, outright that the claims were false the night before they were published.
“Gordon Smart called me and said 'you could be nicked for this'. I told him it was not true; it was totally totally not true, but they still ran the story," Walsh said. "It has been a very traumatic experience for me. I will never get over it.”
The case had been listed for mention in the High Court in Dublin.