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Damages awarded in fake Facebook libel case

July 24th, 2008 by Scott Marks

A guy throws a party and a couple of uninvited guests steal away to his computer room to create a phony Facebook account that lists libelous info pertaining to the whereabouts, activities, birthday and relationship status of the host’s former school chum. The rascally gate-crashers also take time to impugn the friend’s sexuality and political beliefs.

That was Grant Raphael’s defense in a landmark libel suit , the first defamation case involving Facebook in the UK.

The judge didn’t buy it ruling that Rapheal’s argument was “built on lies.” Mathew Firsht has been awarded £22,000 in damages against his former friend and business associate. Times on Line reports, ” Deputy Judge Richard Parkes QC awarded Mr Firsht £15,000 for libel and £2,000 for breach of privacy. Mr Firsht’s company, which arranges audiences for shows such as Big Brother and Ready Steady Cook, was also awarded for £5,000 for libel.”

Mr. Firsht sued Mr. Raphael for creating the fake profile which claimed that Mr. Firsht was “looking for whatever I can get” in a relationship. Mr. Raphael had also signed the profile up to various groups on Facebook, including “Gay in the Wood…Borehamwood” and “Gay Jews in London.’”

Now in his late 30s, Firsht and Raphael became good friends in Brighton, where they went to school together. After a falling out, Firsht’s company thrived while Raphael, a freelance cameraman, floundered. The difference between the two men is that Raphael held a grudge.

The judge called Raphael’s testimony, ““glib and loquacious, always prepared, it seemed to me, to talk his way out of a difficulty, with no apparent insight into the implausibility of some of his answers.” He was flummoxed over Mr. Raphael’s argument that a party-crasher stumbled into his flat for the first time, used his computer for more than an hour, without being observed, to create a false and hurtful profile containing information that only someone associated with Mr. Raphael could have known.

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