Former Moravian minister gets $16m defamation award against Latoya Nugent
Published:Thursday | January 31, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Former Moravian Minister Dr Canute Thompson has been awarded $16 million in damages in a defamation suit against gender activist Latoya Nugent.
He had asked the court to award him $20 million in damages.
Thompson filed the suit after Nugent made several Facebook posts in December 2016 against him and other former Moravian ministers.
In making her ruling, Justice Audre Lindo said she considered factors such as Thompson's standing and Nugent's conduct.
Lindo also said she considered the potential reach of Facebook as a global social network with billions of users.
She cited the 2016 defamation case of former Prime Minister PJ Patterson versus Nationwide News Network.
In that case, Patterson was awarded $12 million after the Nationwide apologised.
The judge also said the story was only carried on one local radio station.
Since the filing of the lawsuit, Nugent has not been active on Facebook.
Thompson has also reported that his attorneys had difficulty serving documents on her.
She did not appear in any of the hearings and so last year, a default judgment was made against her.
The former Moravian Minister, through his attorneys, demanded that Nugent withdraw the allegations and apologise but she refused.
The court heard too that she responded to the demands using expletives and telling the lawyers to proceed with their lawsuit.
Thompson said he has instructed his attorneys to use all legal means to have the judgment executed.
But speaking on Hotline on RJR, he said his only motivation was to restore his name.
Thompson was represented by Michael Hylton, QC instructed by the law firm Williams, McKoy and Palmer.
In 2017, Nugent was arrested under the Cyber Crimes Act and a criminal case initiated against her.
The Director of Public Prosecutions later took over the case and discontinued it, saying Nugent's actions did not meet the threshold for prosecution under the Cyber Crimes Act.
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