What's the law on defamation in the UK?

Broken Shotgun

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I suppose no one here is clued-up about defamation or slander, but I just wanted to ask what your take is on this.

About 3 years ago, an actress on Twitter blocked me. She's called Nicolette McKeown, and she started telling other movie producers not to cast me in films, and I assume this is already widespread. I never really contacted her, other than to call her names when I knew she was speaking about me. Yet I had no real proof that she was doing it, although it was kind of obviously her doing, giving that it started with her. Other people then did it too.

Anyway, I was doing a broadcast on Discord a month ago, and one of these morons that has been bothering me for a year, was talking shit about me and they suddenly brought up the actress in question. I didn't know she had been in contact with these guys, nor did I know they were going to talk about her. They mentioned her about 10 minutes into the live chat, so it was unexpected. But they had revealed that they had gotten her permission to show off messages from herself and other people, and she also said she had contacted a 1980's pop star about me too, because I had a dispute with him.

I've got an appointment with an advice shop on 13 December about how to take her to court, but I have to see a lawyer before that date, as I'm supposed to have made "death threats" to these people on YouTube. The tosser that uploaded the broadcast took it down, or Google removed it after I flagged it, but the arsehole put it back up in a censored manner. Now it's just a banner with all of the original dialogue, but I have the original video saved on my laptop.

I also wanted to take my former support workers to court for a civil case. This is because, I was receiving support years ago, and I had these women removed as support workers while I was in supported housing, but the people in charge lied and I was sold down the river as well. I was also in prison multiple times, for contacting these people. However, I was just trying to make things right with them, even though they acted venomous towards me in the first place. The company covered their tracks well, so trying to prove that they (for example) tricked me to sign away my tenancy, just ain't possible.

I wasn't impressed with their level of support at all. I even had a male support worker sending me abusive emails over 11 years ago, but he used a nickname. He admitted he did this, though. It's likely my very first key worker had been explaining all of this to him. In the emails he sent to me, he talked a lot about my ex during the time I was looking for her, and he cast up a lot of sick remarks about a wrestler who passed away in 2005, and he kept going on about bands I like, with derogatory statements.

That's totally not on. It wouldn't be right for anybody to send abusive messages to a disabled person online, let alone this coming from an autism support worker. Other people said to me that he shouldn't even be allowed to have a career as a support person after putting me through all of that harassment, but he apparently found similar work after his departure. That makes me feel mad, quite honestly.

In fact, I once made a thread about his antics on Wrong Planet.


By the way... this is the snooty actress who keeps jive talking about me online. I'm tired of her doing this to me. I've never did her any wrong.

 
Obligatory disclaimer:

I am not a lawyer. I am a teenager posting on a gaming internet forum. Do not take what I say as legal advice!

First of all, I'm sorry you had to go through that horrible situation of slander and defamation. After I read your post, I decided to Google your question. Here's a Wikipedia article about it. (Granted, Wikipedia isn't the best source, but I think it's a good backbone for your case.) To quote the article directly (bold emphasis is mine):

English law allows actions for libel to be brought in the High Court for any published statements which are alleged to defame a named or identifiable individual(s) (under English law companies are legal persons, and may bring suit for defamation[1][2][3]) in a manner which causes them loss in their trade or profession, or causes a reasonable person to think worse of him, her or them.

So I think the second one: "causes a reasonable person to think worse of him, her, or them" - would be justifiable grounds for the court case.

Here's a better source - this one's by the UK Health and Safety Executive. It outlines the details of slander and the defence to defamation. I think you should read the Wikipedia article and the HSE site before you do anything.

xenonVirus. Good luck with the court case.
 
OK; I was typing up something, and there was seemingly a technical hiccup. For fuck's sake. :sleep:

It was basically a long post about how the court messed up my sister's life by taking her kids away. It was a fairly long post. I selected undo, and the text was already gone. I'm not sure what happened, or how I can fix it now.

What a bummer, but it was a lengthy post about that stuff, and how they also screwed over my other, older sister's partner, and he died because of it. He was really depressed, or something! :oops:

The long and short of it all though, is that this world has way too many arseholes in it. Online, you encounter some right shitty people.
 

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