Judge "infuriated" by Sunday Independent article

A District Court Judge was "upset, annoyed and infuriated" when he read a Sunday Independent article in 1998 that referred to him as a mobile phone freak, the High Court has heard. The article also said that Judge Joseph Mangan may have brought the courts into disrepute.

Judge Mangan, who told the High Court jury he is fighting for his life in taking this action, is suing Independent Newspapers for libel. On 22 March 1998 Judge Joseph Mangan's wife placed the Sunday Independent in front on him saying, "read that".

Beneath the headline "The Case of the Judge and the clearly visible Belly-button," Judge Mangan was one of three District Judges named in an article about consistency between courts.

The article by journalist Gene Kerrigan referred to Judge Terry Finn putting a journalist in custody when his mobile phone rang and then to Judge Mangan on the same day taking a call on his mobile in court in mid-case. "It is obvious that a little consistency is called for", Mr Kerrigan wrote.

He called the two men "the two mobile phone freaks", adding that they "may well have brought the courts into disrepute". In the witness box today, Judge Mangan said that he was taken aback, upset, annoyed, infuriated, embarrassed and humiliated when he read the article.

Judge Mangan explained that he had brought his phone to court that day because he was expecting an urgent call in relation to an emergency court sitting. Articles about the incident were also written in the Examiner and Star newspapers but, said Judge Mangan, they did not drive a stake though his heart. The Independent article did, he said.

He also described the tag mobile phone freak as a scurrilous slur. He said that he was not a freak and he was not a mobile phone freak. The case continues tomorrow.