£40,000 for Tweets...

[Robert_S]

Twitter bigot ordered to pay gay rights campaigner £40,000 for calling her a paedophile

BIGOT David Shuttleton launched a vicious online hate campaign against government adviser Jaye Richards Hill over her support for equal marriage.

A TWITTER troll who branded a teacher a paedophile for campaigning for gay rights has been ordered to pay her £40,000 damages.

Bigot David Shuttleton launched a vicious online hate campaign against education expert
and government adviser Jaye Richards Hill over her support for equal marriage.

Jaye is a leading campaigner for marriage rights for gay couples, and staged a mock wedding to her partner Ruth last year during a demonstration at the Scottish Parliament.

Shuttleton attacked her reputation by sending her hate-filled tweets with the hashtags “child abuse” and “danger to children”, and has since posted many other abusive messages about her on Twitter.

He also tweeted Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon about Jaye, an adviser to Education Secretary Mike Russell

Jaye refused to bow to Shuttleton’s bullying and sued him for defamation of character.

He failed to lodge a proper defence, and the Court of Session have now told him to hand over £40,000, plus costs.

The case is being seen as an important victory for victims of trolling. A source close to Jaye said it was a first in Scotland.

The insider said: “This man deserves to be held to account.

“He wants to be seen as some great freedom of speech martyr. He keeps quoting psalms in the Bible but he is a hypocrite. People like that deserve to be exposed.

“He tweeted Jaye and hashtagged the words ‘child abuse’ and ‘danger to children’.

“He also tweeted Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, and that’s when Jaye decided to bring defamation proceedings.

“That could affect her in the future if someone Googles her for a job, or if another government advisory post comes up. This has really damaged her professional reputation.

“The problem is the out-and-out homophobia this man spouts.

“People do have fixed views on issues like gay marriage and the debate can get pretty robust. But it has to be on a respectful basis.

“When Shuttleton comes out with the things he does, it sets us back years and years.



Read More

[klr]

Good for her. Scotland is separate from England in many respects when it comes to law, but it's good to see that abuse by Twitter is being taken seriously on both sides of the border.

[Cormac]

Damages should have been higher.