Big hugs
Once in every billion tweets or so, a man will go so much too far that it bites him in the ass.
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster has been awarded £125,000 in damages after a defamatory tweet by TV presenter Dr Christian Jessen. Dr Jessen tweeted an unfounded claim that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader had been having an extra-marital affair on 23 December 2019. The post remained online until Dr Jessen deleted it on 7 January 2020.
A judge at the High Court in Belfast said it was an “outrageous libel” which was “grossly defamatory”.
…
He ordered Dr Jessen, who is best known for presenting Channel Four programme Embarrassing Bodies, to pay damages of £125,000 and Mrs Foster’s legal costs.
The judge also addressed the fact that Dr Jessen failed to respond to warnings from Mrs Foster’s lawyer – which became the subject of mainstream media coverage. “The offending tweet remained on the defendant’s Twitter account for two weeks, a Twitter account with 311,000 followers,” he said.
“The tweet was liked approximately 3,500 times and it was retweeted 517 times. “This outrageously bad libel cut [Mrs Foster] to the core, causing her considerable upset, distress, humiliation, embarrassment and hurt.”
So what’s the nice doctor up to?
Pity the poor man, who is merely an impoverished doctor and tv presenter, sued by a nasty shrew for reasons unknown.
Heart-rending, isn’t it.
Last time I looked, the bellend’s crowdfunder had managed to raise £905 of his £150k target after five days.
That’s hilarious. It’s about time this horrible, horrible man was brought down to Earth.
On top of his awful TV shows, which are built around body-shaming and which he denies might have any negative effects on the vulnerable children who form a large part of their target audience, he has a long history of trolling feminists and saying awful things. For example, he has preached that women ought not to have Cesarean section births unless they would die otherwise. He’s said they shouldn’t breastfeed because that ‘ruins’ the shape of their breasts. He seems at least something of a paedophilia apologist. He has or had a financial interest in a seriously dodgy online pharmacy. He has downplayed the severity of COVID (he said it was no worse than a bad cold). And is a supporter of Boris Johnson. And – perhaps worst of all – he calls himself Dr Christian on TV. I hate that.
Is it legal/against terms and conditions, for someone to use GoFundMe to pay damages arising from a court order?
Good question.
latsot @ 3, yikes – he sounds revolting. The name’s familiar but I knew nothing about him.
Okay, is it just me, or does this sound like the affair was on 12 December rather than the tweet?
It’s not illegal to use crowdfunding for legal costs or fines, be they legal or civil–happens in the U.S. regularly. What I’d like to see is an awareness of this incorporated into the judgements–“You owe X thousand dollars, plus Y percent of any crowdfunding you do to defray these costs.” At least then, the victims would get better restitution.