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Louis Walsh: 'I remain very angry at the treatment I received from the Sun'
X Factor judge Louis Walsh has settled a 500,000 euro (£403,500) defamation case against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers.
The TV talent show panellist sued the media group after the Sun ran a false story that he sexually assaulted a man.
Leonard Watters was jailed for six months for wrongly accusing Mr Walsh of groping him in a Dublin club in 2011.
Mr Walsh took legal action against the publisher over the coverage of Irish police inquiries into the allegations.
He sued for damages, including for aggravated and exemplary damages, over an article published on 23 June 2011 with the headline Louis Probed Over 'Sex Attack' on Man in Loo.
The paper accepted the accusation was false but denied defamation, saying that it acted fairly.
The case had been listed for mention in the High Court in Dublin.
'Remained angry'Mr Walsh said he felt vindicated by the settlement adding that the story had "started with the Irish Sun".
"I have the utmost respect and time for most journalists with whom I've always enjoyed a good relationship," he said.
He said, however, that he remained angry at the way he had been treated by the paper.
"I am therefore absolutely gutted and traumatised that these allegations against me should have been published, particularly as I had made it clear at the time there was not one iota of truth in them, that I was totally bewildered as to who would have made up this type of story," he said.
"Although the perpetrator has since been convicted as a result of concocting the allegations, this didn't stop the story being spread all around the world as a result of the Sun's headlines."
He said that while no amount of money would compensate him for what he had been through, he was glad to have achieved a decisive and categorical settlement.
Watters, a 25-year-old father-of-two, alleged he had been sexually assaulted by Mr Walsh in a toilet at the club. His first complaint was made to police outside the club within hours of the false attack.
He was later examined in a sexual assault unit which revealed bruising in his genital area.
Promised paymentsLawyers for the music promoter claimed a crime writer with the Irish edition of the Sun, Joanne McElgunn, met Watters in a hotel on 15 June, bought him dinner and offered him a sum of money on behalf of the newspaper if he agreed to make a complaint to police about being assaulted by Walsh.
It is also alleged the journalist travelled with Watters to Pearse Street Garda station so he could make the agreed complaint against Mr Walsh, and that Watters was paid 700 euro (£565) and promised further payments after the story was printed.
When the official complaint was made, the Sun and the Irish Sun printed the story before Mr Walsh was questioned under caution. He vigorously denied the accusation.
But within days investigators showed Watters CCTV footage from the club that disputed his claims, and he admitted he had made up the allegation.
Watters, from Navan in County Meath, was arrested, charged and publicly apologised to Walsh for the unfounded claims. He was recently released from jail.
Meanwhile, Mr Walsh took a case against the newspaper, which had been ordered by a judge to hand over all documents identifying or referring to any payments made or offered to Watters.
The orders also applied to Ms McElgunn, Sun journalist Gordon Smart and Dominic Mohan, editor of the Sun, and Michael McNiff, former Irish Sun editor who resigned last month.
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