Sil Fox sues the State over dismissed sex assault case
VETERAN comedian Sil Fox is suing the State after a high-profile sexual assault prosecution brought against him was dismissed by a judge.
The 87-year-old is taking the case to ‘ensure other families don’t endure what our family did’, his son Cyril Fox told the Irish Daily Mail.
The family also want to know why the accuser has kept her anonymity but Mr Fox has not.
The comedian was acquitted and the case dismissed after CCTV evidence showed he had not groped a woman in a bar when she asked for a selfie. He is preparing to take a legal action against the DPP, the Garda Commissioner, the Justice Minister, Ireland and the Attorney General, citing ‘wrongful actions’ in directing the charge against him, according to legal correspondence.
His son told the Mail yesterday his family felt ‘compelled’ to take a legal action to try to ‘hold those who made mistakes to account’.
Cyril said: ‘To think of my father in the dock at 80, we couldn’t be beside him. He didn’t even get a chance to say anything.
‘This is his voice now. We are doing this to make sure other families don’t have to endure this again. This is not about money.
‘All the money in the world can’t undo the emotional damage done to my father, my mother, the entire family. This is to make a stand and to try to make sure other families do not have to endure what we did,’ he added.
The legal correspondence seeks damages and an apology. It was sent to all parties on Monday and states that the DPP’s decision to prosecute an 85-year-old (at the time) man in the public eye was ‘taken without reasonable or probable cause’. Any review of the CCTV evidence would have ruled out a prosecution, it states.
The actions of the DPP in bringing about a prosecution were wrongful, it says. The correspondence also cites a ‘breach of his right to a good name, and infliction of emotional distress for your collective role in bringing about the unsuccessful prosecution, as well as the manner in which the charges against him were reported without restriction’.
Cyril said last night that if the CCTV had been properly examined by the DPP, his father would never have faced criminal charges. ‘Another issue is that the woman at the centre of this got to remain anonymous and my father didn’t,’ he added.
Last July, Judge Michael Walsh refused a defence solicitor’s request to impose reporting restrictions on the case, which would have given Mr Fox anonymity. The comedian’s legal team say his right to privacy was not protected and that he suffered serious reputational damage.
Mr Fox walked free from Dublin District Court after he was cleared of groping a woman in Harry’s On The Green in Dublin two years ago. He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexually assaulting the woman on December 17, 2018, after he agreed to have a selfie photo taken with her.
The case was dismissed by Judge Paula Murphy because of inconsistencies between the woman’s evidence and CCTV.
The judge said the woman had given evidence Mr Fox touched her with his left hand.
The footage showed his hand on the table the entire time the photo was being taken.
‘Breach of his right to a good name’