The Press Ombudsman has upheld a complaint against the Irish Independent for breaching the code of practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

It related to an article on giving full marriage rights to same-sex couples by Kevin Myers.

The Ombudsman John Horgan found that the article reported as fact that ‘the liberalisation of the laws against homosexual acts’ had resulted in “at least 250,000 deaths from AIDS”.

Other elements in the piece reported as factual were that “the record of every society shows that boys without a strong stable male figure in their lives are an express train heading for trouble” and that Catholic adoption agencies have “closed rather than do something which they feel is immoral, which is to hand children over to homosexual couples”.

The Ombudsman found that the article breached the code of practice on grounds of Prejudice and Distinguishing Fact and Comment.

It said that where a comment is reported as fact a newspaper can reasonably be expected to provide evidence of the factuality of the matters and that the publication offered no such evidence.

Interest groups Marriage Equality and BelongTo Youth Services made the complaint along with 3 other individuals.

The Irish Independent said it was clear that the article was an opinion piece.