Libel trial hears...

Frankie Boyle ‘doesn't have a sensitive bone in his body’, his High Court libel trial has heard.

The Daily Mirror’s barrister, Ronald Thwaites QC, yesterday went on the attack while defending the newspaper's description of him as a ‘racist comedian’.

Thwaites said Boyle made a good living telling sick jokes about missing toddler Madeleine McCann and reality TV star Jade Goody, who died of cancer three years ago.

‘He's doing these things for money,’ said Thwaites. ‘There is a level of callousness here, a level of insensitivity about the feelings of others that you might want to take into account.’

Thwaites said jurors should not find in the comedian's favour, but that if they did they should show their contempt by awarding damages of just 45p – the price of a copy of the Daily Mirror.

But Boyle’s lawyer David Sherborne said being called racist was ‘extremely serious. It is not like calling him tasteless or offensive’.

‘This is the first time he has ever taken a newspaper to court despite the enormous amount of criticism his material generates,’ he added.

The case continues next week.

Published: 20 Oct 2012