A planning blogger who sued a council and its chief executive for libel has lost her claim in the High Court and been ordered to pay £25,000 in damages after a counter-claim against her succeeded.
The background to the dispute included a number of planning applications made by Jacqui Thompson and her husband. Three made on behalf of her brother-in-law were refused by Carmarthenshire Council.
The Judge found that Mrs Thompson has been engaged in a vindictive campaign of unlawful harassment, intimidation and defamation against officers in revenge for the refusal of planning applications.
In the course of this long-running campaign, spanning six years, she falsely accused individuals of corruption, lying, perjury, assault and theft.
The court heard that from 1 March 2006 onwards Mrs Thompson wrote letters accusing the council’s head of planning, Eifion Bowen, of professional misconduct and corruption.
Later she also accused the chief executive, Mark James, of corruption, even though he had played no part in the planning applications and all he had done was sign a letter warning that the council was not prepared to accept any form of intimidation or harassment of officers or councillors.
Mr Bowen – but not Mr. James (at that stage) – sued for libel. Mrs Thompson did not seek to prove that her allegations of corruption were true and her defence of honest comment was struck out by the court.
Mrs and Mr Thompson agreed to settle the action on the basis of a public retraction, an apology in open court and the payment of £7,500 towards Mr Bowen’s costs. This occurred on 15 October 2007 and Mr and Mrs Thompson have been paying the costs off since by installments.
Mrs and Mr Thompson then came to believe that the council had paid Mr Bowen’s costs and alleged that they had been lied to. Allegations of perjury were published widely by email. In March 2009, Mrs. Thompson started a blog, Carmarthenshire Planning Problems and more.
The local authority’s chief executive Mark James said: ‘It is important that her attempts have failed and I am pleased for the staff who have been falsely accused that they have been completely vindicated by this judgment. My only regret is that Mrs Thompson has wasted a huge amount of time and money.’
Mrs Thompson said she was ‘absolutely devastated’ by the judgment and was in discussions with her lawyers about a possible appeal.
‘I have always acted in good faith, my motives have always been sincere and have merely criticised the council where I felt it appropriate, and have never had a complaint until the counterclaim,’ she said.
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