UKIP MEP Jane Collins fails in bid to avoid damages

Jane Collins made her remarks during a speech at UKIP's 2014 annual conference in Doncaster

Jane Collins' seat in the European Parliament chamber in Strasbourg was empty earlier this week even though the result of the vote that was about to take place was likely to cost the UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber hundreds of thousands of pounds.

MEPs were deciding whether she could invoke the highly unusual defence of European Parliamentary privilege to stop the High Court in London ordering her to pay damages after it had ruled she had libelled three South Yorkshire Labour MPs.

In fact, it was far from the first time that she had failed to turn up to give evidence at parliamentary and court hearings in what has now dragged on to be a two-year legal saga.

It all started when she made a speech at UKIP's 2014 annual conference in Doncaster in which she claimed that Labour MPs Sarah Champion, John Healey and Sir Kevin Barron, who represent Rotherham in South Yorkshire, had known all about the mass grooming and rape of young girls in the town but had done nothing about it.

The MPs immediately said it was a was lie and sued.

Despite a string of delays and postponements which were mostly at the request of Ms Collins a year later the High Court ruled her accusations were clearly libellous.

With further non-appearances at hearings and last-minute requests for postponements by the UKIP MEP it took until Maythis year before the next High Court hearing assembled where the judge was expected to determine the level of damages and costs she would have to pay.

That was the point at which Ms Collins played her MEP privileges "trump card".

She claimed the High Court had no jurisdiction over her as it was unfairly stopping her carrying out her democratic duties and demanded a ruling by the European Parliament.

I was in court that day in London as Mr Justice Welby told her that he thought the merits of her argument were "improbable" but he would suspend his deliberations until the European Parliament had considered her request.

That was what brought the issue all the way to Strasbourg at this week's sittings of the European Parliament.

Even from where I was in the media gallery high above the vast chamber it was obvious there was little sympathy for her case.

A lengthy investigation by the Parliament's Judicial Committee had already recommended in a report there were no grounds for immunity as her libel had been made in a political speech and not as part of her duties as an elected member.

It took seconds for the MEPs to make up their minds and vote to follow the advice of the committee.

"There were more than a few raised eyebrows at the apparent hypocrisy of a member of a party that wants to dismantle all European Union institutions apparently trying to hide behind one of them to avoid the decision of a British court," Richard Corbett, the Yorkshire MEP who is now the deputy leader of the Labour Group in the European Parliament said to me after the vote.

It had also not gone unnoticed that when she made her speech in 2014 she had just been adopted as the UKIP candidate for Rotherham at the General Election where she would stand against one of the Labour MPs she had libelled.

The three Rotherham MPs - Sir Kevin Barron, Sarah Champion and John Healey - want compensation of £150,000 each

She now faces going back to the High Court to see exactly how much she has to pay. The three MPs claim her allegations damaged their reputation so much they are asking for £150,000 each in damages plus what could be tens of thousands in costs.

It will be up to Mr Justice Welby to determine the final level of damages but in a similar libel judgement he has already made a hefty award to two of the MPs who had exactly the same allegations made against.

Cavan Vines the former leader of the UKIP group on Rotherham Council was ordered to pay each of them £40,000 with as well as their legal costs of £30,000. As a result Mr Vines has declared his personal bankruptcy.

As the judgements pile up against her Ms Collins is still not accepting any of it. She turned down my offer of an interview to discuss her next moves but issued a defiant written statement in which she vowed to fight on.

She says she has grounds for appeal both against the High Court's original ruling that her speech was libellous and the European Parliament's rejection of her claim for protection against prosecution.