A LANDLORD-TURNED-SCREENWRITER’S ATTEMPT to use new anti-stalking laws to “silence” a journalist, preventing her from writing stories about him for five years, has been thrown out of court.

In his ruling today, Judge Anthony Halpin criticised Christian Carter’s attempt to “gag” Amy Molloy, the Irish Independent’s Social Affairs Correspondent, saying that was not the purpose of the civil restraining orders introduced last year.

The journalist has broken stories and covered court cases about Carter’s days as a landlord and his tax affairs, Dublin District Court heard.

“I was just doing my job,” the journalist emphasised when she testified.

Dismissing the case, Judge Halpin declared: “I never envisaged that this forum would be used to dilute journalistic freedom or restrict publication of certain matters. The civil restraining orders became necessary because of the inability of the law to restrain offending behaviour or conduct which is socially disruptive and unacceptable.

“All too often, persons directly affected by harmful conduct lack both the inclination and the resources to do anything about it and generally suffer in silence. This piece of legislation was to address these lacunae in the legal system.”

He held that Carter endeavoured to use this legal remedy to “suppress” the legitimate publication of facts he did not want in the public domain.

In two additional rulings, following applications by Ronan Lupton SC for the newspaper and the journalist, Judge Halpin ordered Carter to pay a €10,000 legal bill incurred by Mediahuis, the publishers of the Irish Independent, and he lifted the in-camera rule allowing the parties to be named and evidence reported.

Lupton described the civil restraining order application as a collateral attack, which tramples on the right of freedom of expression.

In evidence, the journalist rejected suggestions from the applicant’s solicitor, Alex Rafter, that she had stepped over the line, telling Judge Halpin she was simply seeking a comment, offering Carter the right to reply, which was a fundamental part of journalism, and “was just doing my job”.

Carter claimed that the journalist had written 50 articles and had rehashed stories about him since 2017. Some of them also mentioned his sister, award-winning businesswoman Melissa Carter, and he believed that was to sell more papers.

He told the court that Molloy recently attempted to contact his wife, up-and-coming Irish actress Florence Ordesh, by emailing her agent.

Carter claimed this had caused him distress and depression and put him in fear because he thought it could affect his wife’s career.

He said that he had moved on with his life, earned a law degree, worked in arbitration and commenced a career as a screenwriter.

In evidence, the journalist said that since 2017, she had written articles concerning properties Carter rented out and when he appeared on the tax defaulters list last year.

One of the properties featured in her work was a Cabinteely property, which she alleged had 70 tenants, while Carter claimed it was a 6,000 sq ft 25-roomed mansion with 40 tenants.

The Circuit Court had ordered him to pay €20,000 to some of his tenants.

Judge Halpin heard he was also featured in a 2017 RTÉ Investigates broadcast called Nightmare to Let.

Molloy said she had written 17 or 18 pieces about the businessman concerning his issues with the Residential Tenancies Board, a council and the Revenue Commissioners.

The journalist explained that a source informed her that Carter had recently travelled to various destinations, including South America, Canada, and Hawaii.

Molloy explained that in light of that, she attempted to reach out to him for a comment on whether he had paid up following his settlement of nearly one million euro with the Revenue Commissioners after under-declaring income tax.

She asserted: “If Mr Carter had paid his taxes and had not dangerously overcrowded houses, I would never have had to write about him.”

She explained that she had only contacted his wife’s agent because it seemed that her WhatsApp messages to his phone were not received, and she thought he may have blocked her.

Molloy stressed that she had no intention of mentioning the actress in her planned article.

She revealed that Carter had frequently responded in a cordial way but had also previously threatened her that he could make her lose her job, and he had accused her of writing lies. She said she received some messages from him at about 1 am.

She said she was shocked at his effort to take out a restraining order against her.

The judge also learned that when Carter began these proceedings, he had not disclosed that he had commenced four defamation cases against media organisations, including the respondent, which are still before the High Court.

Lupton described the civil restraining order attempt as a collateral attack, which tramples on the right of freedom of expression.

Judge Halpin also noted that having been granted an interim order civil restraining order on 9 April, the applicant sent an email a day later to Kevin Doyle, the paper’s news editor, seeking a private compromise. “This is totally unacceptable and undermines the bona fides of his application before the court,” Judge Halpin said.

“A civil, restraining order is a relief that has far reaching powers. The higher standard of proof is therefore deemed necessary in the interest of justice and in the instant case it would restrict the respondent from writing that which the public is entitled to know and would in fact amount to placing a gagging order on the journalist,” he added.

In a preliminary application, at the outset of the hearing, Carter also failed in an attempt to exclude journalists from being in court to report on the proceedings.

A spokesperson for Mediahuis Ireland, publishers of the Irish Independent, said: “This was an unprecedented attempt to weaponise new legislation designed to protect victims of harassment. Carter had effectively obtained an order that gagged the Irish Independent from legitimate public interest reporting. It is notable he did so by targeting an individual journalist.

“Lawsuits that attempt to censor and silence the media are rightly addressed by the proposed Defamation Bill, the enactment of which must remain a key priority for the Government.

“Mediahuis Ireland takes any threat to the freedom of the press extremely seriously and is therefore grateful for Judge Halpin’s unambiguous ruling. In particular we welcome the fact that he lifted reporting restrictions so that the public can be made aware of an attempt to use the law in this manner.”

Carter was unavailable for comment when approached after the hearing.