Mediahuis and former Independent News & Media (INM) chairman Leslie Buckley have settled High Court claims by two of the last litigants caught up in the data breach scandal at the Irish Independent publisher.
Although the affair dates to the middle of the last decade when Buckley’s associate, Denis O’Brien, was the main shareholder in the business, Belgian-owned Mediahuis has been grappling with the fallout since it took control of the former INM in 2019.
Settlements were reached in June with public relations consultant Rory Godson, a former adviser to INM, and UK corporate lawyer Nick Cooper. Cooper was general counsel and board director with telecoms company Cable & Wireless when it won a big case in the London courts taken against it by O’Brien’s Caribbean mobile phone group Digicel.
The resolution of these cases comes two years after High Court inspectors found the October 2014 data breach did not violate company law. Those findings led the Corporate Enforcement Authority to conclude that no enforcement was required over the matter.
The latest settlements are seen as an effort by Mediahuis to finally bring an end to the affair.
However, there is nothing on the court record to suggest the High Court case taken by the company against Buckley will be discontinued.
INM long blamed Buckley for violating the personal data of 19 people, initiating court action against him over the affair in 2018. For his part, Buckley has claimed he was scapegoated by INM.
Buckley himself had no comment on the company’s legal action against him and Mediahuis declined to say whether it plans to prosecute the case.
At the same time, Buckley said a separate High Court case he took last year against insurer Allianz “has been satisfactorily resolved”.
Allianz declined to discuss the Buckley case. “They can’t comment on individual cases,” said a spokeswoman.
Godson and Cooper were among a group of 19 individuals known as the INM 19 – including journalists, INM executives, Moriarty tribunal barristers, public relations and legal figures – whose data was breached by the company.
Previous out-of-court agreements with more than dozen of the 19 led to payments of several hundred thousand euro to certain other litigants over the 2014 data breach so the cost of the new settlements is likely to be considerable – with further large sums required to meet legal expenses arising from prolonged litigation.
High Court records show separate cases taken by Godson and Cooper were halted on June 16th.
In following days, filings were made to the court to formally discontinue cases taken by 10 other INM-19 litigants whose cases were settled years ago.
They included the cases taken by radio presenter and Sunday Independent columnist Brendan O’Connor, former INM chief financial officer Donal Buggy and former Irish Independent columnist Sam Smyth.
There was no comment from Godson. Cooper did not reply to phone and text messages enquiring about his case.
Mediahuis and Buckley had nothing to say about the settlements. “Please be advised that we have no comment at this time,” Mediahuis said. “These matters are of a confidential nature and we are prohibited from commenting,” said Buckley,
At the time of the data breach, O’Brien was the dominant force in INM after ousting the late Sir Anthony O’Reilly in a bitter corporate war for control of the group. Buckley represented his interests as chairman.