‘Swingers exposé trashed my reputation’

A FORMER GAA footballer had his life and reputation destroyed after Sunday World stories claimed he was involved in organising swingers’ parties, the High Court heard.

Brian Nolan was effectively accused of being involved in the sex trade when he only ever attended a handful of private parties, said his barrister Jim O’Callaghan SC.

Mr Nolan was called ‘king of the swingers’ in the newspaper, which also printed pictures of the exfootballer posing at a swingers’ party, the court heard.

Mr O’Callaghan said the Sunday World presented Mr Nolan as having been a willing participant in the publication of the photographs. The reality was he posed for the pictures in a private capacity at private parties, the barrister told the court in Cork.

‘The impression [given by the Sunday World] is that he is happy to pose. Everyone else [in the photographs] is pixelated.

‘The meaning is that the plaintiff is happy for his identity to be put out in the public domain. He is the only person whose identity is revealed,’ the lawyer said.

Mr O’Callaghan said the publication of the story on Mr Nolan and his inclusion in a 12-page supplement on the sex trade had caused enormous damage to his reputation.

The barrister said: ‘This badly affected his social life because people shunned him.

‘They [the Sunday World] had a sustained campaign against him. They never gave him a chance to respond to their allegations.

‘We don’t say it was defamatory to say he attended swingers parties. It is defamatory to say he was the organiser of swingers’ parties.’

Mr Nolan, who played senior football for Kildare in the 1990s, lost his job as a coach at Bective Rangers RFC in 2015 after the exposé, the court heard.

The 49-year-old is suing the Sunday World for defamation and invasion of privacy over articles published on July 15, 2012, and March 3, 2013.

He has told the court he went to a handful of swingers’ parties out of curiosity as his partner was bisexual and was interested in going. He stated he was uncomfortable and withdrew from it.

Mr Nolan said he had posed for a photo at one party with three women wearing lingerie who had their backs to the camera. He was pictured giving a thumbs-up. He said the four swingers’ parties he went to were in Dunboyne, Co. Meath; Bailieboro, Co. Cavan; Tallaght; and elsewhere in Dublin,

Mr Nolan, of Goatstown in Dublin, told Judge Tony O’Connor the articles had caused untold damage to his personal life.

The Sunday World denies all Mr Nolan’s claims. It has claimed privilege and says the matters were of public importance.

The newspaper denies the articles were written falsely or with malice and it denies the articles constitute a breach of his privacy.

Judgment was reserved.

‘This badly affected his social life’