Senator David Norris, the failed presidential candidate, has begun proceedings for defamation against RTE and Helen Lucy Burke, a restaurant critic who alleged he said there was “something to be said” for “classic paedophilia, as practised by the Greeks”.
The comments were made to Burke in 2002 over dinner during an interview with the senator for Magill magazine. The journalist produced a recording of the conversation during last year’s presidential campaign. The recording was broadcast by RTE days before the election in November.
Norris did not dispute the comments, but said they were taken out of context and claimed they were resurrected in an effort to influence his presidential campaign. His solicitors formally issued proceedings in the High Court in Dublin last week. Burke, Norris and RTE all declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Norris has settled a dispute with his former public-relations adviser by paying a bill of €30,000 that had been outstanding since the election campaign. Paul Allen & Associates was hired by Norris’s campaign last September after the senator relaunched his campaign, having pulled out in August.
Paul Allen, the managing director of Paul Allen & Associates, refused to divulge any further information, saying it was a confidential matter.