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TV cameraman told to pay £22,000 for Facebook lies
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent24.07.08
A businessman whose personal details were "laid bare" in fake libellous entries on the Facebook social networking website was awarded £22,000 damages today against a former friend who created the profile.
Mathew Firsht, managing director of Applause Store Productions, sued an old schoolfriend, freelance TV cameraman Grant Raphael, for libel and misuse of private information.
A judge at the High Court ruled that Mr Raphael's defence to the action - that the entry was created by mischievous party gate-crashers at his flat - was "built on lies".
Deputy Judge Richard Parkes QC awarded Mr Firsht £15,000 for libel and £2,000 for breach of privacy.
Mr Firsht's company, which finds audiences and provides warm-up services for TV and radio shows, including Top Gear, The X Factor and Big Brother, was awarded £5,000 for libel.
Mr Firsht accused Mr Raphael of creating a false personal profile and a company profile called Has Mathew Firsht Lied To You? from a computer at the flat where Mr Raphael was living in Hampstead in June last year.
Mr Raphael claimed that " strangers" who attended an impromptu party at the address sneaked off to a spare bedroom and created the details.
The profiles were on the site for 16 days until Mr Firsht's brother spotted them and they were taken down by Facebook.
The judge heard that the private information concerned Mr Firsht's whereabouts, activities, birthday and relationship status and falsely indicated his sexual orientation and political views.
It said he was "looking for whatever I can get" in terms of relationships and was signed up to groups including-Gay In The Wood ... Borehamwood, and Gay Jews In London.
Mr Firsht complained about allegations that he owed substantial sums of money which he had repeatedly avoided paying by lying, and that he and his company were not to be trusted in the financial conduct of their business and represented a serious credit risk.
He accused Mr Raphael of bearing a grudge against him since they fell out over a business dispute in 2000 and of creating a false Facebook entry with the aim of causing him anxiety and embarrassment.
The judge described as "utterly farfetched" Mr Raphael's claim that a complete and random stranger visiting his flat for the first time used his computer for more than an hour unobserved to create a profile containing information that few people apart from him could have known.
