LABOUR senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has apologised to Paddy Jackson for a tweet he posted after the rugby star was found not guilty of rape.
Senator Ó Ríordáin sent the tweet from his personal account after Jackson and fellow rugby player Stuart Olding were acquitted in the highly-publicised rape trial at Belfast Crown Court.
In the since-deleted tweet, the Labour politician praised the courage of the complainant at the centre of the trial and also made reference to what he termed "smug well-connected middle-class boys".
Paddy Jackson's legal team released a statement shortly afterwards revealing they had begun legal action over Mr Ó Ríordáin's "defamatory comments".
— Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (@AodhanORiordain) April 9, 2018
In a statement today, the Dublin Bay North senator apologised for his remarks, saying that his tweet was not intended to "suggest that either Paddy Jackson or any of the other accused men were guilty or that the jury got it wrong".
He added: "I apologise for any suggestion to the contrary. I accept that I was not privy to all the evidence put before the jury during the trial."
Ó Ríordáin went on to say that he will not be making any further comment on the matter.
Last week, Paddy Jackson released a statement saying he felt "ashamed that a young woman who was a visitor to my home left in a distressed state".
In the statement, issued through PA, Jackson accepted that public criticism of his behaviour was "fully justified" and that he had not acted in accordance with the "integral" values and principles he was raised with.
