EC v Sunday Newspapers Limited
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Colton J |
| Judgment Date | 06 December 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] NIQB 117 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 06 December 2017 |
1
Neutral Citation No: [2017] NIQB 117
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)*
Ref: COL10380
Delivered: 6/12/2017
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
_______
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
_________
2015 No. 58617/01
BETWEEN:
EC
Plaintiff
-and-
SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS LIMITED
Defendant
________
COLTON J
Introduction
[1] In this action the plaintiff complains about material concerning him published
by the defendant in pages 24 and 25 of the Sunday World Newspaper on 14 June
2015. He says that the publication constituted an unlawful invasion of his privacy
(alternatively referred to as misuse of private information), defamation, breach of his
rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 and breach of copyright.
[2] I am obliged to the assistance provided by counsel in this case for their
excellent written and oral submissions. Mr Gavin Millar QC appeared with Mr Peter
Girvan for the plaintiff. Mr Brett Lockhart QC appeared with Mr Richard Coghlin
for the defendant.
Factual background
[3] On 23 August 1998 the plaintiff, then aged 16, had been out celebrating his
GCSE exam results with classmates including Ronan Hampsey who was also aged
16.
[4] The group went back to the plaintiff’s home because his parents had been
away for the weekend. In the early hours of the morning Ronan Hampsey was
2
killed when a shotgun owned by the plaintiff’s father was discharged causing a fatal
wound to the head.
[5] The plaintiff was initially charged with the murder of Ronan Hampsey but
the charge was reduced to manslaughter to which the plaintiff pleaded guilty on
25 June 1999.
[6] A contemporaneous newspaper report of the criminal proceedings concerning
the plea and sentence of the plaintiff described the circumstances in the following
way:
“A Crown lawyer said (the plaintiff’s) sister and her
7 month old daughter were also in the house when
the group arrived and the accused had been worried
the noise of the party might wake them.
At one point he warned the victim he would ‘get the
shotgun’ for him if he did not keep quiet.
He later went to his father’s bedroom and got the
weapon, loading a single cartridge into the gun.
The lawyer said some witnesses had said he came
into the living room carrying the gun and he and
Hampsey had started ‘laughing and carrying on’.
It appeared Hampsey had seized the weapon’s barrel
and the gun had gone off, he said.
(The plaintiff) later told police he had believed the
gun’s safety catch had been on when he brought it in,
but the court heard he had no experience of guns.”
[7] The sentencing judge Mr Justice Pringle is quoted as saying that he would
give the plaintiff full credit for the fact that he had pleaded guilty and spared the
victim’s family the torture of a trial. He said:
“In getting your father’s shotgun and loading it you
behaved with extreme foolishness, but it is accepted
that the firing of the gun was accidental.”
[8] Mr Justice Pringle sentenced the plaintiff to two years custody in a Young
Offenders Centre with the sentence suspended for three years.
[9] Newspaper articles in the Belfast Telegraph and Irish News at the time of the
sentencing named the plaintiff.
3
[10] In May 2015 the plaintiff, with the assistance of his family, opened an “airsoft
skirmishing” site, “Torrent Warfare”, on land next to the family home where
Mr Hampsey was killed. It is also close to the graveyard where Mr Hampsey is
buried. Both the plaintiff’s family and the Hampsey family continue to live in the
town of Coalisland.
[11] Airsoft skirmishing is a recreational activity in which participants eliminate
opponents by hitting each other with spherical non-metallic pellets launched via
specially made replica weapons called airsoft guns. It is commonly compared to
paintball. Games are overseen by a marshal and participants must wear eye/facial
protection at all times. The sport can be played by children and young people with
parental consent.
[12] The site run by the plaintiff has been registered with the Mid-Ulster District
Council and was subject to an initial advisory visit on 9 January 2015 and a health
and safety inspection on 1 May 2015 prior to the site being fully operative. Torrent
Warfare is registered under the United Kingdom Airsoft Retailers Association
(UKARA) and is fully insured.
[13] The business has been promoted by the plaintiff via Facebook and social
media. A feature of Torrent Warfare is the apparent realism of the simulated combat
which takes place. The weapons used are designed to look like real firearms,
participants dress in combat style khaki uniform, the business is promoted with
military style images.
The publication
[14] It is clear from the evidence heard in the course of the proceedings that the
Hampsey family were extremely unhappy about the sentence which was imposed
on the plaintiff in 1999 and with other aspects of the criminal proceedings.
[15] The Hampsey family were upset that the plaintiff opened this business at this
place and against the background of Ronan’s death. They approached a freelance
journalist Mr Ronan McSherry, who was a friend, with a view to highlighting their
concerns. Mr McSherry prepared two articles which he provided to a journalist
employed by the Sunday World, Mr Steven Moore, together with some cuttings
from newspaper articles from 1998/1999 which he had been given by the Hampsey
family. He also sent some digital photographs to Mr Moore by e-mail, again
provided to him by the Hampseys.
[16] Mr Moore looked at the plaintiff’s Facebook pages and rewrote
Mr McSherry’s articles for publication. He did not interview the Hampseys. He did
not contact the plaintiff for comment or visit the airsoft skirmishing site when
rewriting the two articles.
To continue reading
Request your trial