Antrim couple awarded £300,000 against Tattle Life have damages set aside

A SUM OF £300,000 (€347,000) in damages awarded to a Co Antrim couple who sued the operators of the gossip website Tattle Life is to be set aside, a judge has ruled.

Businesspeople Neil and Donna Sands were each awarded £150,000 (€174,000) in a Northern Ireland court in late 2023 when they began proceedings against the then-unknown operators of the website for neglecting to remove alleged defamatory and harassing commentary published by users on the site.

Tattle Life is a gossip website that allows users to publish anonymous threads and comments about public figures, businesspeople, and social media personalities. 

The Sands also secured a separate award for their substantial legal costs. Last year, reporting restrictions were lifted so businessman Sebastian Bond could be named as the operator of Tattle Life.

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Bond was discovered as the website’s operator after a lengthy legal battle, as well as the couple availing of the services of Nardello, a leading global investigations firm.

However, in a High Court judgment delivered today, Justice Humphreys said the Sands had failed to establish Bond was aware of those court proceedings.

He ruled they had not properly served a writ on Bond.

“Reliance is placed on a number of evidential factors in support of the proposition that Bond did have such knowledge,” he said. “Ultimately, however, there is no evidence of actual knowledge on the part of Mr Bond.

“The court is asked to draw inferences of knowledge from certain facts and actions which it is simply not able to do.”

As a result, their damages would be set aside, he said.

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He also set aside a worldwide freezing order on Bond and his companies’ assets up to the value of £1.8 million (the value of the Sands’ awards and their legal costs) that had previously been implemented by a court.

“Since the proceedings have not been served, it follows as a matter of consequence that the judgment against the first [Bond] and third [Kumquat Tree Limited, a company registered to Bond] defendants is set aside pursuant to Order 13 rule 8,” he stated in his ruling.

However, he struck out a bid by Bond to rule that the court proceedings were an abuse of process. 

A notice published on Tattle Life this evening describes Bond as having become “the most vilified man in Britain” whose “life is in ruins” as a result of the court proceedings. It welcomed today’s judgment. 

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