PNP General Secretary, Dr. Dayton Campbell is expressing relief after winning his defamation suit against former PNP activist Karen Cross and her co-defendants.
The ruling was handed down in the Supreme Court on Friday.
The court found that Karen Cross and her co-defendants defamed Dr. Campbell in posts made in 2021 and 2022.
Chevon Campbell has been reading the judgement.
The case was brought by Dr. Campbell in March of 2021 against, Karen Cross, Natalee Stack and Michelle Stern.
Dr. Campbell claims the defendants published defamatory words in relation to him, using electronic mail and the social media platforms YouTube and Facebook.
Ms. Cross in her defence, filed in May of the same year, said she would rely on truth and fair comment.
As part of her claim she submitted to the court, statements allegedly written and signed by three females alleging sexual misconduct.
But, Dr. Campbell, in his application asked that the defences of each of the three be struck out; that judgment be entered against them and that damages be assessed.
He also sought a permanent mandatory injunction directing the removal of the social media posts which alleged sexual misconduct by him.
He similarly called for a prohibitory injunction, prohibiting further publication of the same or similar allegations of sexual misconduct.
Puisne Judge, Althea Jarrett, ruled against all three defendants.
In the case of Karen Cross, Justice Jarrett said there is no question in her mind that on the face of it, these allegations made by the first defendant were defamatory of the claimant.
She says the three statements that her defence hangs on to support these allegations, all have the makers’ names redacted and so their identities are unknown.
The Judge says statements from the JCF indicate that the police found no basis for the allegations made and Karen Cross provided no evidence to substantiate her claims to the police.
Justice Jarrett noted that it was odd, that after not being able to provide the police with anyone willing to make a complaint against the claimant, Karen Cross argued that she would provide the makers of the statements at trial.
However, the Judge says one would have thought, that if the true intention is to seek justice for the young girls, the thing to do would be to bring the evidence to the police and allow them to conduct a successful investigation leading to charges.
Karen Cross’ defence was therefore struck out.
The second defendant, Natalee Stack, was also found not to have any reasonable grounds to defend her claim.
The third defendant, Michelle Stern sought to distance herself from the allegations citing that she simply republished Karen Cross’s statements.
However, the judge not only found that there is no basis to remove her from the claim, but that her defence does not disclose any reasonable grounds to defend the claim.
The judgement was granted in favour of Dr. Campbell.
The three defendants are also restrained from uploading, publishing or communicating by social media or any other media any further words of the same or similar content as the videos and posts the subject of the claim.
The matter is to proceed to a case management conference before an assessment judge.
However, the defendants have been given leave to appeal the judgment.
The PNP General Secretary is expressing relief regarding the ruling in his favour.
Dr. Campbell told Nationwide News that he sees no reasonable grounds for the defendants to further appeal the ruling.
Dr. Dayton Campbell, General Secretary of the People’s National Party.
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