€20,000 damages awarded after RLO 'Ku Klux Klan' remark

A Limerick man has been awarded damages of €20,000 after successfully suing broadcaster Gerry Hannon and the owner of pirate radio station RLO, Gerard Madden, over a 'Ku Klux Klan' remark made in 2003.

Desmond Hayes from Ballyneety sued both motor mouth Hannon and owner Madden for libel after the remarks were made on Hannons Late n’ Live talk show in March 2003.

Leader website has more,

“Under cross-examination by lawyers for Mr Hannan and Mr Madden, Mr Hayes agreed that he was a regular contributor to the programme prior to the offending broadcast but he strongly denied his contributions were of a racist nature.Mr Hayes was also quizzed about his failed attempts to establish a political party around the same time ahead of the 2004 local and European elections. Mr Hayes said there were around 300 people interested in joining the Democratic People's Party but he agreed it was not established due to a number of technicalities. He denied suggestions from Mark Nicholas BL, for Mr Hannan, that the party would have been a white supremacist party whose ethos would have been to keep Ireland for the Irish."That is a fabrication and that is not what I am about. All we wanted to do was to lift the lot of working-class people," said Mr Hayes.”

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