Lady fights order to pay ex-boyfriend $10,000 over police criticism

A Sydney lady has been ordered to pay her ex-boyfriend $10,000 in punitive damages for defaming him in a criticism filed with NSW Police looking for to ask an appeals courtroom to overturn the choice.

The Queensland District Courtroom dominated final month that the lady defamed her former Brisbane accomplice in a verbal criticism to police in March 2020, after her relationship completed couple.

Decide Nathan Jarro discovered the criticism conveyed a defamatory connotation that her ex-boyfriend was a “petty man” and “the form of one that engages in home violence”.

The ex-boyfriend instructed the courtroom that his months-long relationship with the lady led to March 2020 after he found she was in one other relationship.

The choose accepted a second man’s proof, offered in courtroom in Could, that he had been in a de facto relationship with the lady for plenty of years when her ex-boyfriend instructed him on March 19, 2020, that he was additionally in a relationship together with her.

The courtroom heard the lady make a verbal criticism to a NSW police officer that day, saying she now not wished any contact together with her ex.

Police suggested the person to not contact her once more, in accordance with pc data offered in courtroom, and that he was “talked to by police about the potential of future AVO if he continued to take action.” misplaced [her] … on undesirable contact”.

Police data say the lady alleges her ex-boyfriend “continued to speak together with her by way of numerous means” after she ended the connection in February.

The lawsuit is a comparatively uncommon instance of somebody being sued for defamation when making a criticism to the federal government. The girl sought to depend on the safety of common-law certified privilege in addition to the safety of mediocrity or incapability to be harmed.