Mr O'Brien claims that articles published on 15 March 2015 giving details of a government report into Ireland's banks, portrayed him as one of a gang of 22 "developer kings" who destroyed the country and bankrupted its banking system. Senior Counsel, Michael McDowell told the three men and eight women there was no defamation whatsoever and Mr O'Brien's allegations were unfounded, manufactured, false, damaging, irresponsible and malicious.
He told the jurors the case was an exercise in spoiling for a fight. And Mr O'Brien wanted to put down decent honest, truthful journalists who kept democracy going by telling the truth. Mr O'Brien had also earlier accused Mr Lyons of acting improperly for not putting a figure to him when it transpired that under no circumstances would he have answered that question.
Mr McDowell said Mr O'Brien had given a "folksy, phoney and false account" of his reasons for putting his Portuguese leisure development Quinta Da Lago on the market for €220m and for taking it off the market again. He encouraged the jurors to decide who was telling the truth - the journalists or the "flamboyant" Mr O'Brien who saw himself as the victim of the articles.
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Source: IrishTimes - 🏆 3. / 98 Read more »