An Irish journalist has successfully had a case taken against her by a landlord and tax defaulter thrown out.

Landlord Christian Carter had sought to have a restraining order imposed against Irish Independent journalist Amy Molloy following her reporting on his activities.

Legal affairs editor at the paper told The Pat Kenny Show that Ms Molloy began reporting on Mr Carter about eight years ago.

“Back in 2017, she was writing about the housing crisis and investigating issues to do with rental accommodation, particularly in Dublin,” he said.

“At that time, one particular attention was in Cabinteely, it was called The Pines.

“She discovered that there were 70 residents living in this house.

“As she outlined in court yesterday, these tenants were living in squalid conditions.”

The basement of the house in Cabinteely. Image via the Irish Independent.

Mr Phelan said that further investigation revealed to Ms Molloy that a man called Christian Carter was involved with the property.

Following the publication of the initial story, it came out that Mr Carter had a network of properties across Dublin which were being rented out and where “overcrowded conditions were a feature”, according to Mr Phelan.

“Fast forward then to last year, Christian Carter has, I suppose, gone off the radar," he said.

"But he’s back on the radar again because lo and behold, he appears at the top of the Revenue Commissioner’s tax defaulters list.

“He is said to have made a settlement of close to one million euros – and this is in respect of unpaid taxes.

“Obviously, there’s penalties involved and interest in that figure as well.”

Restraining order

Mr Phelan said that earlier in this year, Ms Molloy attempted to contact Mr Carter to verify whether he had paid off his revenue debt and other legal payments.

She managed to get into contact with him, but before she could publish an article on the topic, Mr Carter went to court and was granted a civil restraining order.

“This is an order that was brought in under legislation last year,” Mr Phelan said.

“It was basically to give a quick remedy for somebody who was being harassed – they could go into court on a one-sided only basis, and they’d be able to get a temporary order lasting eight days to restrain a person from harassing them.

“Christian Carter went into court and told the court last week that he was in fear of Amy Molloy and what she might write about him, and the order was granted.

“So, for a period of eight days, it was essentially a gagging order over the journalist.”

The judge who oversaw the case said he “never envisaged this order could be used to dilute journalistic freedom or restrict publication of certain matters” and threw the case out.

Mr Carter has said that he is no longer a landlord and now works as an arbitrator and screenwriter.

Main image: Gavel laying on judges bench in courtroom