THE HIGH COURT has ruled that Louis Walsh is entitled to discovery of documents on false allegations as part of a defamation case against the Sun newspaper.
Walsh is suing the Sun for defamation arising out of a story by the newspaper in June 2011. Crime writer Joanne McElgunn wrote about a Garda investigation into a claim by 24 year old Leonard Watters that Walsh had sexually assaulted him in the toilet of a Dublin nightclub.
Any information or documentation associated with McElgunn and preparation of the article entitled “Louis probed over ‘sex attack on man in loo’” must now be handed over to Walsh, the judge ruled.
Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill also ordered the paper to hand over documents relating to any payments offered or made by the Sun to Watters.
Walsh claims the journalist met Watters at a hotel and offered him money if he agreed to make a complaint to the Gardaí about being assaulted by the entertainment manager and X Factor judge.
The High Court judge ordered any documents referring to the booking of a hotel room for the man to be given to Walsh as well as texts, emails and telephone records between Watters and the crime journalist.
Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill said the newspaper publishers now unreservedly accepted that the allegations against Walsh “were false and that he had been completely exonerated in this respect”.
In January this year Watters was sentenced to six months in jail for the false statements made to Gardaí claiming Walsh groped him in Dublin’s Krystle nightclub.
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