Leslie Buckley must pay costs of failed bid to have INM inspectors revoked Justice Garrett Simons orders former INM chairman to pay substantial legal fees
Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 18:26
Former Independent News & Media chairman Leslie Buckley has been ordered to pay most of the substantial legal costs of his failed bid to revoke the High Court’s appointment of two inspectors into various matters at the media group.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons ruled on Monday that Mr Buckley should pay the legal costs incurred by the inspectors, Sean Gillane SC and Richard Fleck CBE, in opposing the eight-day hearing of the application.
Print media
OâBrienâs sortie into print media, via a near 30 per cent stake in Independent News & Media (INM), beginning in 2006, also left him nursing substantial losses, reported to be about â¬500 million by the time he exited two years ago.
He succeeded in wresting control of the media group from Sir Anthony OâReilly and his family but did so at the worst possible time, with the State in the middle of the troika bailout and print media being disrupted by digital and new media. Denis OâBrien will now have more time to focus on Digicel, his Caribbean telecoms business. Photograph: Getty Images
Once the main man in Irish media, Communicorp sale is the final sign off on Denis O Brien s radio days independent.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independent.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Former Independent News & Media (INM) chairman Leslie Buckley has failed in an application seeking to revoke the appointment of inspectors investigating a major suspected data breach at the company in 2014.
Mr Buckley wanted the appointment of barrister Sean Gillane SC and solicitor Richard Fleck revoked on grounds of “objective bias”, claiming they omitted key evidence from a draft interim report.
However, the application has been rejected by the High Court with Mr Justice Garrett Simons finding it had to be refused as it was irreconcilable with case law of the Supreme Court.
The decision paves the way for the inspectors to continue their investigations.