District Court judge rules ‘joke’ email defamed prison officer but calling him homosexual was not defamatory
Recently, a prison officer at the Adelaide Remand Centre, named Stephen Kirkham, sent out an email from his co-worker’s account. The email stated that he, the co-worker, was gay. A District Court judge has now ruled that Kirkham must pay $100,000 in damages to said co-worker. The email incident took place in July of 2011.
The judge did rule, though, that Kirkham is not guilty of defamation. The judge notes that calling another person homosexual is not actually defamatory, however, he did award damages of $100,000 due to the email, which Kirkham has said that he meant as a ‘joke’.
A District Court Judge ruled that Cosimo Tassone, will receive $100,000 from Stephen Kirkham. The judge awarded this amount due to Tassone’s medical expenses as well as a loss of wages.
Tassone sued Kirkham over the email, as it was sent by Kirkham from Mr Tassone’s account. The email was sent out to nearly 1,200 people.
The contents of the email were: “Hello people, just a note to say that I am a homosexual and I am looking for like minded people to share time with.”
Tassone says that the email caused him much upset and anxiety, and his doctor declared him unfit for work. However, Tassone did return to work in September 2012. He also claimed that the email defamed his moral character because it portrayed him as a homosexual, which he felt it labeled him as both promiscuous and unprofessional.
The judge did not agree that saying Tassone was homosexual defamed his character, but she did agree that Tassone had been defamed by the suggestion that he was trying to use his employment to solicit sex.
In court, Tassone broke down as he recalled his reaction when he read the email.
“I was in absolute shock. I was worried people would look at me differently — that I was hidden in the closet behind closed doors,” Tassone noted.
At first, Kirkham readily admitted that he was the one who sent out the email, and said that it was meant as a joke. He noted that it was, in fact, a “bad joke” but then he retracted his admission and claimed another co-worker actually sent it.
Judge Cole rejected this retraction as “wholly unreliable”.
