A man has been ordered to pay damages of £26,000 to his former
employers in the first case in the UK on committing libel by
anonymous e-mail. David Frankl also faces legal expenses estimated
at up to £100,000.
The High Court in London found this week that Mr Frankl, a
former employee of construction company Takenaka (UK) Ltd, sent
three e-mails last year to his former bosses from a Hotmail acoount
using the false name of Christina Realtor. The e-mails defamed the
company's managing director, Brian Corfe.
Although Mr Frankl denied the charges against him, it appears
that he was caught after Takenaka obtained court orders to force
Microsoft and ISP CompuServe to co-operate in tracing the
defamatory e-mails to a laptop used by him at his subsequent place
of work.
Mr Justice Alliott ordered Mr Frankl to pay Takenaka £1,000 for
libels of hypocrisy, double standards and callousness laid against
it. He awarded Mr Corfe the sum of £25,000 for “much graver”
libels, including allegations of an affair and of refusing to pay
child support for an illegitimate son.
It is thought to be the first case where a UK court has ordered
companies to co-operate with the police to trace libellous e-mails
in this way.
