Arlene Foster suing Dr Christian

[MissyB1]

Apparently he tweeted that she was having an affair (without any proof), and the way he put it was a spiteful little jibe about her being a “sanctity of marriage preaching woman” adding “it always comes back to bite them on the arse”
Now I understand he might have an issue with her as I think she was against same sex marriage. But this man always strikes me as an arrogant twat and a nasty piece of work.

I tried to post the link but I’m such a technophobe! it’s on BBC news website

@MadamBatty

I don’t care about Arlene’s politics.

I do care about people smearing other peoples reputation just because they think they can get away with it.

The arrogance of the man not engaging with the court.

This - he's a horribly unpleasant, misogynistic man.

I hope she sues the arse off him and wins a fortune in damages.

Ffs I'm in the office 300 yards from the High Court, if I'd known this was today I would dandered round!

Delighted about this. I hope JKR takes note.

I hope she sues the arse off him and wins a fortune in damages.

She did and she has SchaudenfreudePersonified

£125k is a lot of money in a libel case. Foster sued Jessen in the NI courts, not the English courts. What he may not have understood is that Foster is herself a barrister, the NI legal profession is a very small world in which everyone knows everyone else, and he libelled one of their own. Silly boy.

Spot on.

As an outsider, choosing to fight Arlene on her own patch, in a court run by her mates, Jessen has either been very poorly advised or very naive. Probably both. Rightly or wrongly, posh, English, arrogant & gay isn’t a combination that’s going to get you very far in NI.

@Deliriumoftheendless

Being a cunt is not a mental health problem.

And I don't believe he didn't receive the papers - surely something like that would be sent recorded delivery?

He's such a cowardly, self-justifying bumhole.

Nice.
WD Arlene.

Justice has been done. Of course I wish the allegations had never been made. I hope no tv company will go near the doctor.

I suppose he can sell a few of those antiques he bought at auction then.

He could have criticised Arlene Foster in a very legitimate way but it's very telling that he went straight to personalised misogyny.

She was a solicitor, not that it makes much odds like.

If you read the stuff about the bomb on the school bus and her dad, she had a tough ride in her formative years. Whatever you say about her, the woman has grit.

He could have criticised Arlene Foster in a very legitimate way but it's very telling that he went straight to personalised misogyny.

This^

Quote from OP's link.

Mrs Foster's barrister David Ringland QC said a solicitor for the DUP leader had contacted Dr Jessen on Twitter instructing him to remove the post on 24 December but he had refused to do so.

Mr Ringland said the tweet was not removed until 7 January, when Dr Jessen responded to follow-up requests in a "pithy email".

As you can see, Jessen saw it and responded to it on 25th December.

If you're using a screen-reader, the conversation goes like this, below Jessen's defamatory tweet.

Paul Tweed, Lawyer for AF: I am putting Dr Christian Jessen on notice in relation to a totally false allegation he has tweeted regarding DUP Leader and former NI First Minister, Arlene Foster. Legal action will also be taken against any persons who have retweeted this highly defamatory allegation.

Some smartarse fan of Jessen's: Hi Paul, your reply has also pushed the original tweet through to your 12.3k followers. Everyone that liked and RT’d you has also pushed original tweet to their followers.

So far you have generated over 100,000 impressions of @DoctorChristian tweet.

Who sues you? @DUPleader

Dr Christian Jessen: "lol".

I hope Jessen thought that lol was worth £125k

Never realised he was such a cunt.

Papers are sent recorded delivery or actually served by a person they don't send them second class mail with just a stamp

Comment from Arlene Foster's lawyer.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/i-dont-think-hes-laughing-now-christian-jessen-to-pay-record-damages-over-arlene-foster-false-tweet-40475551.html

How much is it likely to be in total? £150 k or more ?

Good.

There is a disparity in awards &
Court costs between the different jurisdictions - NI is eye-wateringly expensive on both counts - but no matter the disparity between what Katie Hopkins had to pay & this case, I think the outcome in this case will have far wider implications. It's not just in NI that people will now be a bit more careful I think.

Jessen really ought to have taken some early legal advice & at least taken on board just how much more expensive this would be for him, given where Arlene resides (and her previous occupation too). That alone should have been enough to focus the mind on whether his casual use of twitter for 'shits & giggles' at others' expense was something he should have been a bit more circumspect with in hindsight.

Ho hum. We all live & learn, eh?

Maybe little Owen, wee Freddy and dr haddock can start a crowd funder for him, although I don’t think wee Freddy knows what a crowd fund is!

@Rhannion

How much is it likely to be in total? £150 k or more ?

My guess is way more.

It's been a long time since I had a (civil) case in NI, and maybe things have changed since then, but costs were significantly higher in NI, along with compensation awards. I'm still only guessing but I think the final bill will eclipse Hopkins' by quite a margin.

all guesswork on my part, IANAL

@RedDogsBeg

I hope she sues the arse off him and wins a fortune in damages.

She did and she has SchaudenfreudePersonified

Aye - I should have read the full thread (to coincide a phrase )

Let's hope she goes after any high-profile re-tweeters - the lovely Dr Harrop, perhaps?

It strikes me as particularly ironic that an adult 40 yo man, who thinks it's appropriate for a child to be forced into marriage and all the attendant physical dangers it brings (we'll leave psychological and emotional ones aside for just now) runs back to his Mummy and Daddy when he gets into trouble, and claims that he's too poorly to be held responsible for his own actions.

No wonder his trademark golden hair "didn't look as burnished as usual".

As an outsider, choosing to fight Arlene on her own patch, in a court run by her mates, Jessen has either been very poorly advised or very naive. Probably both. Rightly or wrongly, posh, English, arrogant & gay isn’t a combination that’s going to get you very far in NI.

While that's true, I don't think Jessen was going to get very far in any court. It's one of the worst defences to a libel action I have ever seen. He didn't produce any evidence to suggest that the tweet was true, or that he might reasonably have thought it was true. He didn't have a good reason for refusing to take it down when asked. He didn't have an excuse for writing "lol" in response to Foster's solicitor's request to take it down. He didn't have a good reason as to why he ignored the papers that were served on him. He made a feeble excuse about his poor mental health, and having to stay at his parents, which the court cast doubt on when it drew attention to a podcast he'd made where he talked about playing table tennis in his own home.

The one thing courts really don't like is people who take the piss out of the legal system. If Jessen had any sense at all, he'd have offered a contrite apology at the outset.

*To coin a phrase - not coinincide.

Really auto-carrot - can you not behave yourself for FIVE MINUTES?

He said that the associated allegation of being a hypocrite also "stung deeply" and he said that he accepts Ms Foster's evidence that she is not homophobic .

The judge said that that when such an accusation is made it is distressing.

^"Her traditional religious views, which I accept are genuine and sincere, are views she is entitled to hold and express," he said.°

The Judge added that as Northern Ireland becomes more secular, there "must be room" for individuals to hold such views without being classed as homophobic.

He said Ms Foster stated that same sex marriage is legal and that she respects the law.

"I accept her evidence that she is not homophobic," he said.

I thought this was interesting too. Disagreement does not equal homophobia.

[quote ItsAllGoingToBeFine]I very much hope she wins.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3223860-What-s-the-deal-with-Dr-Christian

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3245071-To-be-disgusted-that-Dr-Christian-Jessen-considers-some-kinds-of-child-rape-to-be-morally-excusable-on-cultural-grounds

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3325668-Dr-Christian-Jessen-problem-with-feminists-or-just-controversial[/quote]
The absolute joy to read this. After he publicised how he refused to seek medical attention for a burst appendix I've always thought he was a prime cock.

Sorry for the DM link but it's where I first read the story, back in 2010!

But the gym addict, who works out for more than an hour and a half a day, six times a week, is the first to admit it was not the only reason he was reluctant to get it checked. 'It was partly a vanity thing,' he says. 'I didn't want a scar on my body and I didn't want to accept that I wouldn't be able to go to the gym for a while.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1293668/Dr-Christian-Jessen-Being-scared-vain-control-freak-cost-life.html

What kind of clinician* tries to weasel behind the shield of MH, when the act of his retweet would undoubtedly cause distress to the victim...

• professionals (who do know better) should be held to a higher account

Damages + AF costs + his own costs = a lorra lorra lols.