An international laughing stock was made of the man who showed up naked at his co-worker's hotel room door during a business trip last year, after his company issued a press release about the incident in order to explain why he was stepping down.

Donal Kinsella was on a business trip with a company secretary secretary, Deidre Corcoran, when he appeared, clothesless, at the door to her hotel room three times.

Naturally she complained to her company, Kenmare Resources, and the controversy escalated.

Kinsella said he had been sleepwalking, and explained the fact that he was naked with the justification that he often sleeps that way.

But Kenmare Resources was dubious and asked that he step down as chairman of the firm's audit committee.

Kenmare then issued a press release to explain why it had asked Kinsella to step down, and in a short time, the story went viral.

So Kinsella sued the company.

It's well known that he was a frequent sleepwalker, he told the court, and he had been drinking and taking painkillers, and "had a habit of sleeping naked."

Kinsella appealed to the court, and asked them to consider his situation - he's married with six children - and claimed that the press release made him "an international 'laughing stock.'"

The courtroom sympathized; he just won the case.

From The Telegraph,

An independent investigation by Kenmare found that Mr Kinsella had made no conscious effort to enter the room of Deidre Corcoran, the company secretary.

An Irish jury ruled against Kenmare Resources for sending out a press release wrongly suggesting that there had been "something juicy" or inappropriate in Donal Kinsella's conduct.

Kenmare Resources is appealing the pay-out, which is ten times the previous record for libel damages in Ireland.

For more details, go to the Telegraph>