Tattle Life forum founder ‘used fake name’
The founder of online gossip forum Tattle Life operated under a fake name as part of alleged attempts to “escape” a Co Antrim couple’s attempts to sue for libel, the Court of Appeal heard today.
Counsel for entrepreneurs Neil and Donna Sands claimed Sebastian Bond was fully aware of their legal action while he used the pseudonym Helen McDougal.
Mr and Mrs Sands are attempting to have a previously obtained award of £300,000 in damages reinstated.
The couple have been locked in a legal battle over postings on Tattle Life, a controversial site where comments are made about influencers, celebrities and other members of the public.
They claimed to have been subjected to a campaign of harassment, invasion of privacy, defamation and breach of data rights in postings which amounted to a form of hate speech.
In December 2023 Mr and Mrs Sands were each awarded £150,000 damages.
Mr Bond was subsequently named as a founder of Tattle Life after reporting restrictions were lifted.
Earlier this year, however, the award of damages was set aside at the High Court in Belfast based on an alleged abuse of process.
Mr Justice Humphreys identified failures to properly serve writs on either Mr Bond or a Hong Kong-based company linked to the action.
By that stage a solicitor for the couple accepted previous evidence had been incomplete and that information known about the site’s founder should have been disclosed earlier.
An apology was offered for what was described as honest mistakes not intended to mislead or create any tactical advantage in the legal battle.
Appealing against the High Court verdict, Mr and Mrs Sands’ barrister said it had been wrong to make a case-ending order against them.
Gavin Millar KC claimed an adverse inference should be drawn against Mr Bond that he knew about the litigation at all relevant times but chose to ignore it.
The court heard he ran Tattle Life under a fake name, with complaints lodged about the content of some of its online threads as far back as 2021 receiving responses from an email address posing under that pseudonym.
“It shows Mr Bond, in the guise of Helen McDougal, was managing the website,” counsel submitted.
Mr Millar insisted no reason has been provided for why he would then suddenly disappear off the scene when proceedings were underway in 2023.
Five key documents in the legal proceedings were said to have been sent without any bouncing back as being undelivered.
The three appeal judges were told Mr Bond has refused to file an affidavit in his own name to provide any explanation.
Instead, it was alleged, he had deliberately ignored or avoided the legal process.
“Mr Bond was running an anonymised website, unlawfully to make it harder for people to sue him,” Mr Millar said.
Tony McGleenan KC, for Mr Bond, countered that the plaintiffs had wrongly issued the writ against persons unknown despite knowing about Mr Bond by mid-2023.
Contending the original hearing was conducted in secret, counsel insisted that the judge should have been informed that Mr Bond’s identity was known.
Reserving judgment in the appeal, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan pledged to give a ruling as soon as possible.