MAN WINS GAY FACEBOOK LIBEL CASE

A UK man has been awarded £22,000 after a former friend created a false Facebook profile which made untrue statements about him.

Mathew Firsht successfully sued Grant Raphael, a former school friend with whom he had fallen out, and was awarded £15,000 for libel and £2,000 for breach of privacy.

The court found that Raphael had a created a fake profile pretending to be Firsht. In it, he included false claims about Firsht’s political views, his relationships and sexual orientation, including that he was “looking for whatever I can get.”

He also joined groups such as ‘Gay Jews in London’ through the profile, posted information about Firsht’s personal details and even claimed that his company was untrustworthy and a credit risk in a group he created called ‘Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?’

Raphael had told the court that the profile has been created without his knowledge by a group of unknown friends who used his computer during a party at his house.

The judge rejected the explanation, saying that his defence was “utterly far-fetched” and “built on lies.”