The High Court dismissed two related appeals by sisters Stacey Cash and Maria O’Reilly over an alleged defamation incident in a River Island store in Cork, affirming without amendment the Circuit Court decisions against them.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 30 January 2017, Mr Justice Twomey said the appeals concerned defamation proceedings the sisters had brought against Hennes and Mauritz (Ireland) Limited and Noonan Services Group. The Circuit Court, with Judge David Riordan presiding, had dismissed the proceedings.
The dispute arose after the sisters shopped at H&M with Ms Cash’s four-and-a-half-year-old son. The judgment records that the boy took a Spider-Man mask from an outfit in H&M, concealed it under his top and left the shop without paying. In River Island, the child put the mask on his head. A River Island security guard, Mr McDonagh, alerted H&M security guard Mr Bruton, who went to retrieve it.
The sisters said Mr Bruton grabbed the mask from the child and called them “the biggest shoplifters in the city”. Mr Bruton denied making that or a similar comment. He said the child handed the mask back when asked. Mr McDonagh gave evidence that he followed Mr Bruton down the stairs and saw the child return the mask; he also said he heard no alleged insult.
The High Court rejected the sisters’ evidence that they had not noticed the mask until Mr Bruton arrived. Justice Twomey said the court found that account difficult to believe, given the time that had passed and the sisters’ movements through the store. He relied on the inconsistency in their evidence in preferring Mr McDonagh’s account of what happened next.
Finding that the incident as described by the sisters had not occurred, the High Court dismissed the proceedings and affirmed the Circuit Court decision without amendment. The judgment records no further order.