Ex-student ordered to pay $105,000 over Twitter defamation
Yahoo!7 March 4, 2014, 4:35 pm
A former schoolboy has been ordered to pay $105,000 for defaming a schoolteacher on Twitter in the first case of its kind in Australia.
District Court judge Michael Elkaim ruled that Andrew Farley, a former pupil at Ornage High School, should pay damages for making false allegations about music teacher Christine Mickle that had ‘devastating effects’, reports Fairfax.
It is the first case of its kind in Australia involving Twitter to go to trial.
In an unreported judgement in November, Judge Elkaim said: “When defamatory publications are made on social media it is common knowledge that they spread.
“They are spread easily by the simple manipulation of mobile phones and computers. Their evil lies in the grapevine effect that stems from the use of this type of communication.”
It was reported Mr Farley, 20 at the time of the judgment, is the son of the former head of music and art at the school.
Music teacher Ms Mickle took over from Mr Farley’s father on an acting basis in 2008 and was the subject of a series of defamatory comments from Mr Farley four years later, a year after he graduated.
"For some reason it seems that the defendant bears a grudge against the plaintiff, apparently based on a belief that she had something to do with his father leaving the school," Judge Elkaim continued.
“There is absolutely no evidence to substantiate that belief."
Ms Mickle took sick leave after the incident and only returned to work last year.
Mr Farley was ordered to pay $85,000 in compensatory damages and $20,000 in aggravated damages.
Judge Elkaim described Ms Mickle as ‘a very honest woman who had been terribly hurt both by the comments in general but perhaps more particularly by the suggestion that she may have been responsible for any harm, ill health or effect of any of her actions on the defendant's father’.
Mr Farley removed the comments and apologized in Decemebr 2012 – but only after ignoring an initial letter from Ms Mickle’s lawyers.
That apology was questioned by the judge when he tried to argue in his defence the comments were true.
