Online abuse case concludes

A Sunderland-based housing company has won a legal action against a rival firm that was making defamatory comments about staff on an online forum.

The Gentoo Group, formerly the Sunderland Group, sued John Finn, the owner of Pallion Housing Ltd, John Baines and John Smith, administrators of the DadsPlace website and the Pallion Housing firm.

The DadsPlace website, which had an anonymous user forum, was closed down in June 2006.

The misleading postings, which claimed that the chief executive Peter Walls and employees had engaged in drug dealing, paedophilia, sexual assault, illicit affairs and corruption, lead to the company losing business and damaged the reputations of the staff, the court found.

"Mr Walls has agreed to accept the sum of £100,000 in settlement of his claims against Mr Finn and Pallion to mark the substantial restoration of his reputation and to compensate him for the distress and anxiety," the court judgement read.

Walls said: "No amount of money can compensate my family for the distress these outrageous and false statements have caused us. What was particularly frightening was the fact that we didn’t know who has doing this or why.

"There is no doubt that the internet can be a fantastic tool for good but we urgently need legal change to enable victims of internet abuse to have a quicker and more effective route to justice," he continued.

Back in October last year, Walls called for a "fast-track" way of bringing perpetrators of online defamation to justice, as Web User reported.

Olswang partner, Dan Tench, who represented the Group, said that there was an online trail that lead to the criminals being caught and sued.

"This was one of the most concerted defamation campaigns any organisation has faced. Even when asked to desist, the site continued to add fresh claims on an almost daily basis, with the authors attempting to hide behind anonymity in order to avoid any responsibility for their actions. What they overlooked is that their online activity left a trail that could be traced, revealing their identities," said Tench.

www.gentoosunderland.com