Finn initially denied posting a series of defamatory and abusive
comments but changed his position during a trial last year and has
agreed to pay out the £119,000. A trial to assess damages was due
to begin on 1st April.
Finn agreed the payout after negotiations with Gentoo and Walls
and a statement was read out in the High Court today explaining the
settlement. Finn will also be liable for as-yet-undetermined legal
costs which are expected to run into hundreds of thousands of
pounds.
Gentoo is a social housing company that was formerly the
Sunderland Housing Group. Finn runs rival firm Pallion.
The case centred on remarks made by anonymous posters to the
Dads Place website.
"From behind their cloak of anonymity, Dads Place used their
publications and in particular the website to conduct a malicious,
unpleasant and relentless campaign of libel and harassment,"
Gentoo's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC told the High Court.
"The Claimants brought proceedings for libel in respect of
numerous seriously defamatory allegations ranging from corruption
to nepotism and the promotion of female employees in exchange for
sexual favours," Tomlinson told the Court.
Gentoo will be paid £5,000, other employees £14,000 and Walls
£100,000 in what is believed to be the biggest payout in UK legal
history over online libel.
Finn has paid £125,000 to the Court already as an interim
payment to cover costs, and the Court will hear a case on costs if
he and Gentoo and Walls, represented by law firm Olswang, cannot
come to an agreement on costs.
Tomlinson told the Court that the people behind the Dads Place
website tried hard to stay anonymous. "Those responsible for the
publication of the Dads Place Publications took careful steps to
conceal their identities and it took many months of painstaking
investigation to identify just some of those responsible for Dads
Place and bring proceedings against them," he said. "As a result of
those proceedings the website was finally shut down in July
2006."
Tomlinson said that the allegations made against his client had
had a significant effect on him.
"Mr Walls was forced to withstand an almost daily barrage of
anonymous allegations, threats, and abuse and suffered very serious
damage to his professional and personal reputation. Many other
Gentoo employees were subject to wholly unacceptable levels of
harassment and abuse," he said.
"This case illustrates that the internet is not a lawless
state," said John Mackenzie of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind
OUT-LAW.COM. "The court can and will award substantial sums of
money for false and defamatory statements. While the court was told
of the difficulties of tracking people down, the fact remains that
they can be tracked down."
