Trouble seems to follow Sunday Worst scribbler Hugh Jordan around like
a bad smell.
Not content with landing his paper with an indefensible libel action
involving former Harcourt Centre and Sheridan IMAX boss Peter
Curistan, Hugh now faces a writ . . . from another Sunday Worst
journalist!
Hugh managed to libel former Northern picture editor Alwyn James in
his weakly (sic) column, accusing him of peddling Class-A drugs and
being charged with possession with intent to supply by the RUC.
Not a shred of truth in any of it, of course, and James'
understandable reaction was to threaten to haul Worst editor Colm
MacGinty through the Four Goldmines.
James is a close personal friend of former RUC Chief Constable Ronnie
Flanagan and legal eagles estimate Hugh's outrageous calumny to be
worth 150,000 euro in settlement and any figure you care to name at
trial.
James even suggested to MacGinty that maybe Hugh was a candidate for
the psychiatrist's couch such is his fondness for telling porkies!
Of course, it's not the first time Hugh's been caught out in a lie.
His claim on Ulster Television to have interviewed convicted 'tiger'
kidnapper Paddy Watson behind bars at the North's Maghaberry Prison
was pure invention (he actually paid Watson's wife a large amount of
cash to make up the quotes).
Hugh's fairytales about Curistan's business interests in the North,
meanwhile, could cost the Sunday Worst upwards of 1 million euro in
damages and lawyers' fees.
But Hugh's legal problems pale into insignificance when compared to
the difficulties he faces on the other side of the Atlantic.
The US State Department is currently examining Hugh's admissions that
he was once a key member of a Workers Party conspiracy to defraud the
US Treasury in the 1980s.
State spokesman Gonzo Gallegos (crazy name, crazy guy!) and Channing
Phillips at the US Department of Justice were remaining tight-lipped
this weekend.
But it's understood a former 'comrade' of Hugh's at Gardiner Place
(and long-time resident of the East Coast) is cosying up with federal
prosecutors in exchange for 'regularising' his residency status.
The offences to which Hugh has confessed (in the infamous 'Jordan
memo') carry a maximum sentence of 30-to-life at Leavenworth Federal
Prison in leafy Leavenworth, Kansas, where no-one fights over the soap
in the showers!
As they say in his native Glasgow, it seems Hugh is well-and-truly
'Donald Ducked' this time!
a bad smell.
Not content with landing his paper with an indefensible libel action
involving former Harcourt Centre and Sheridan IMAX boss Peter
Curistan, Hugh now faces a writ . . . from another Sunday Worst
journalist!
Hugh managed to libel former Northern picture editor Alwyn James in
his weakly (sic) column, accusing him of peddling Class-A drugs and
being charged with possession with intent to supply by the RUC.
Not a shred of truth in any of it, of course, and James'
understandable reaction was to threaten to haul Worst editor Colm
MacGinty through the Four Goldmines.
James is a close personal friend of former RUC Chief Constable Ronnie
Flanagan and legal eagles estimate Hugh's outrageous calumny to be
worth 150,000 euro in settlement and any figure you care to name at
trial.
James even suggested to MacGinty that maybe Hugh was a candidate for
the psychiatrist's couch such is his fondness for telling porkies!
Of course, it's not the first time Hugh's been caught out in a lie.
His claim on Ulster Television to have interviewed convicted 'tiger'
kidnapper Paddy Watson behind bars at the North's Maghaberry Prison
was pure invention (he actually paid Watson's wife a large amount of
cash to make up the quotes).
Hugh's fairytales about Curistan's business interests in the North,
meanwhile, could cost the Sunday Worst upwards of 1 million euro in
damages and lawyers' fees.
But Hugh's legal problems pale into insignificance when compared to
the difficulties he faces on the other side of the Atlantic.
The US State Department is currently examining Hugh's admissions that
he was once a key member of a Workers Party conspiracy to defraud the
US Treasury in the 1980s.
State spokesman Gonzo Gallegos (crazy name, crazy guy!) and Channing
Phillips at the US Department of Justice were remaining tight-lipped
this weekend.
But it's understood a former 'comrade' of Hugh's at Gardiner Place
(and long-time resident of the East Coast) is cosying up with federal
prosecutors in exchange for 'regularising' his residency status.
The offences to which Hugh has confessed (in the infamous 'Jordan
memo') carry a maximum sentence of 30-to-life at Leavenworth Federal
Prison in leafy Leavenworth, Kansas, where no-one fights over the soap
in the showers!
As they say in his native Glasgow, it seems Hugh is well-and-truly
'Donald Ducked' this time!
