The Court found/concluded that Grant Raphael had created a false
profile and a false group which alleged his former friend Matthew
Firsht was gay, owed business associates money and lied about
paying it back.
The profile appeared to be Firsht's profile while the group page
was about Firsht. The profile page falsely claimed that Firsht was
gay. The group page said: "Mathew Firsht the managing director of
Applause Store owes us a lot of money and has constantly lied about
when he will pay us".
Raphael had claimed in court that strangers attending an
impromptu party at his house had created the profile. Richard
Parkes QC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, said that
Raphael's claims were "utterly implausible from start to
finish".
The court awarded Firsht £15,000 in damages for the libel and
£2,000 for the invasion of his privacy. His company, Applause
Stores, was awarded £5,000 for the libel.
"The libel is…not at the top end of the scale, although it is
serious enough to say of a successful businessman that (as I have
found the words to mean) he owes substantial sums of money which he
has repeatedly avoided paying by lying and making implausible
excuses, so that he is not to be trusted in the financial conduct
of his business and represents a serious credit risk," said Parkes
in his ruling. "I do take into account also the effect on Mr Firsht
of the unpleasant allegations against him which the Defendant made
in his original Defence, and the fact that the Defendant has
persisted to trial in a case which I have found to be no more than
a lie."
"As far as the tort of misuse of private information is
concerned, I accept Mr Firsht's evidence that it caused him, a very
private person, great shock and upset. The information which has
been conceded to be private, or which I have held in the private
annex to this judgment to be private, related to his supposed
sexual preferences, his relationship status (single or otherwise),
his political and religious beliefs, and his date of birth. It
seems to me that the most important information is that which
relates to his supposed sexual preferences," he said.
Raphael and Firsht had been friends as teenagers and had worked
together but had fallen out. Raphael is a freelance cameraman and
Firsht runs his own company providing audiences for television
programmes such as Big Brother and Britain's Got Talent.
Raphael claimed that on the night when the fake pages were
created he had had a party at his flat and some strangers were
there. He said that the pages must have been created on his
computer by the strangers.
In his ruling Parkes expressed disbelief that these strangers
would know enough about Mathew Firsht to create the pages and said
that it was an unlikely coincidence that it would be Firsht that
they would choose as the victim of their hoax. Raphael claimed that
papers on his desk must have provided the strangers with the
information they needed.
Firsht's lawyer told the court that the pages contained
information about his relationship status, birthday, whereabouts
and activities, and that they misrepresented his political
views.
Raphael admitted to being a frequent user of Facebook and
admitted accessing his own profile from home just before the fake
profile was created.
Parkes said that it was undisputed that the pages had been
created by a computer using Raphael's internet protocol addresss.
"The main issue which I have to decide is whether Grant Raphael was
responsible for putting up the false profile and for creating the
group," he said.
Parkes said that he was convinced that it was Raphael that had
created the pages and lied in court about not having done so.
"It seemed to me that he was a witness who believed in his own
ability to talk himself out of trouble," he said. "It gives me no
pleasure to conclude that he lied to me about his involvement in
the creation of the false profile and group page, but that is the
conclusion which I have reached."
