Skepticat is being slandered by Neville Southall. Can we prosecute for libel?

[DJLippy]

Many of you may be aware of the assault that occurred when a group of women met to have a discussion about the Gender Recognition Act in Hyde Park. Blogger Skeptikat (AKA Maria Maclachlan) was set about by three males who tried to steal her camera and then physically assaulted her when she defended herself.

www.feministcurrent.com/2018/04/27/trans-identified-male-tara-wolf-charged-assault-hyde-park-attack/

Despite her attacker being found GUILTY of battery the media continue to spin the story as - nasty feminists beats poor defenseless transwoman. This is just not OK.

Last Night Neville Southall lent his account to some TRA campaigners who made a series of inflammatory and most definitely libelous claims

Does anybody have any legal experience? Would someone be willing to take this on pro-bono? Would sending a letter with the threat of legal action be enough to get some restitution? Could we set up a Justgiving page to pay for legal action? We need to get together and show them what the sisterhood can do!

I think it would have to be Maria herself who sued. The statement is clearly and unequivocally libellous. A single letter from a solicitor demanding an apology would, I’d have gave thought, be enough to sort it out.

Surely there is somebody on here who has legal experience who would be willing to draft a letter. I have no legal education so not sure how these things work!

What you want is a letter from a top libel lawyer. I’d be happy to make a donation.

"Surely there is somebody on here who has legal experience who would be willing to draft a letter. I have no legal education so not sure how these things work!"

The first thing that you need to know is that only the person who believes themself to have been libelled can bring the action, or have any standing in arranging for a letter to be sent. A draft knocked up by someone who claims online to be a lawyer, is not likely to be a good starting point.

There is therefore little point in asking MNers to make suggestions, other than that the person concerned should seek legal advice.

Fundraising, other than for registered charities, is no longer permitted on MN.

Maria - if you feel like going ahead with this, I'll certainly bung you some money towards the legal costs.

I know that she is not rich so she can't really bring a prosecution. This just feels so unfair. The rich can say whatever they like and we just have to accept it. Where is the justice?

You can still bring libel cases in a no win, no fee basis. This is such a clear cut case of defamation that I’m sure Maria would have no problem finding a lawyer to take it on. I hope she’d opt for someone like Carter Ruck to put the fear of God in Southall and whoever took over his account.

Why is this person letting people drive his twitter? Is he really the ex footballer? What axe has he to grind? Is he nuts (allowing someone to use his account)??

I'd contribute some coffers if Maria wants to try legal action against him.

He's an ego on wheels who is trying to stay relevant.

Oh. What could possibly go wrong?

I just think a very pubic eating of his own hat would be enough. Make him think again before acting like such a fool.

There was an article on the attention-seeking buffoon in the Guardian last month (June)

www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jun/04/neville-southall-flak-sex-workers-lgbt-issues

I hope that he gets his come uppance some day.

In this case (unless I've missed something) I'm not convinced that the statements are defamatory. The case of Dr Stockwood was very clear - a falsehood calculated to damage her reputation and standing as an academic.

In this case, Nev is giving his opinion on what he sees in a video. Anyone can watch the video and draw a different conclusion.

He says it’s clear that the woman (ie Maria) had her assailant in a headlock. Libel cases have been fought and won on much milder stuff than that - see eg the Sally Bercos case for an example.

It would be libellous if he claimed that the video had been doctored, or that Maria had committed perjury, or that the magistrate had been bribed. Those would all be falsehoods calculated to damage the credibility of a witness.

The point is that Maria's credibility as a witness is undamaged by Nev's interpretation of the Video Action Replay, (See what I did there with a footballing reference?). The magistrate convicted and sentenced Wolf after listening to the witness and viewing the same video.

He's barking.

I see that Nev has announced a short break from Twitter in the face of threats of legal action. The threats have been enough to make him think twice about handing over Twitter to TRAs who foam at the mouth and act the giddy goat, I suspect. Job Done .... until the next time.

She's taking a lot of flack - still and it's just not OK. People quieted down for a while after she secured that conviction but it's started up again.

Other people are also being targeted. I think it would be useful to start some kind of fund to pay for legal actions. How much does it cost to send letters?

It's wrong that normal women are being defamed who don't have the social or financial resources to argue back. This is bullying plain and simple. Rich, well connected public figures are acting with impunity. To bully. This is not even a feminist issue it's a fairness issue.

As I mentioned earlier, you can bring a libel case on a no win, no fee basis. It needn’t cost you a penny.

Why does it depend on Maria's credibility as a witness?

Maria is a humanist celebrant. It's extremely damaging to her reputation if she is wrongly smeared as violent.

He's saying Maria put someone (not Wolf, this is one of the other two assailants) in a headlock and they were defending themself. It's the fucking 'zapruder interpretation' again that's been going on since the days following the attack on Maria.

It's a pack of lies.

This person was attempting to steal Maria's camera. She had hold of them in an attempt to stop them. In the end they threw her camera to the ground, breaking it. She got the broken camera back but the memory card had been stolen.

Maria's account is here. I was there and saw what happened first hand. Maria's account is accurate.