Former Miss World Rosanna Davison suing no-frills carrier Ryanair for defamation has been awarded €80,000 after winning her case.
A jury ruled a press release by the airline implied the model, daughter of singer Chris de Burgh, was racist, xenophobic, jealous and narrow-minded.
After less than three hours of deliberations at the High Court in Dublin the jury found she had been defamed by the Ryanair.
The case centred on a press release posted on Ryanair’s website on November 11th 2008 in response to remarks Miss Davison made the previous day in a newspaper.
The model had been asked by a journalist about what she thought of the lack of any Irish women in Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar, which featured bikini clad cabin crew.
Miss Davison said she was correctly quoted the next day as saying: “If I was (organising) it, I would have made sure that Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising.”
The following day the airline issued its press release which stated Ryanair “today hit back at comments made by Irish glamour model Rosanna Davison in relation to the absence of Irish cabin crew from Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar which ‘bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew’.”
Miss Davison (27) of Cornelscourt, Dublin, claimed the release defamed her in that, she alleges, it meant she was racist, xenophobic and jealous.
Ryanair denied defamation and maintained it stated her comments bordered on racism and not that she was racist.
Dressed in a knee length black dress, fitted black jacket and black steel toe encrusted Christian Louboutin shoes, Miss Davison sat alone at the back of the packed courtroom as the verdict was returned.
Crowned Miss World in 2003, Miss Davison completed an honours degree in Sociology and History of Art at University College Dublin in 2006 and did a diploma in PR and Event Management. She is also a newspaper columnist.
The jury of eight men and four women awarded Miss Davison €40,000 for compensatory damages and €40,000 for aggravated damages.
The case will be mentioned again next week when Ryanair is expected to ask for a stay on the payment.
Mr Justice Eamon de Valera had earlier told the jury any award of damages should be appropriate and not unnecessarily extravagant.
