The local GAA star, devastated by the publication in the Carlow Nationalist of a picture of him showing his private parts, has been awarded a further €11,000 in damages and legal costs in the High Court in Dublin this week.
The Nationalist, who published the offending picture of Richie Sinnott on pages one and three of its sports section in June 2005, will also be forced to fork out legal costs of over €100,000 following the lengthy High Court proceedings.
The pictures taken while Richie was playing a match destroyed him so much that he brought the case to Carlow Circuit Court in 2006.
The court ordered the Nationalist to pay him €6,500 in damages for “breach of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional harm and negligence arising from the publication.”
During the seven-day trial, the 24-year old Clonegal man gave evidence that the pictures, which very obviously showed his private parts, caused him untold upset.
In 2007, the Nationalist appealed that decision to the High Court.
Mr Justice Declan Budd rejected that appeal ruling the newspaper to be negligent. He said that the picture “featured all the paraphernalia of human reproduction” and that it “strained all credulity” to accept it was a mistake.
He said that based on the evidence presented to him, the photographer and the person making up the page, would have picked up the offensive nature of the photograph.
Former sports editor Paul Donaghy gave evidence that he wasn’t aware of the offensive nature of the photograph because if he had been he would not have published it.
He said it was simply a “blunder”.
In the High Court earlier this week before Mr Justice Budd again, the amount of damages was ordered to be increased to €11,000 plus costs to Mr Sinnott.
