Ms. Reid was the CEO of Capital Football and Mr. Dukic was a local football coach. Mr. Dukic had posted about Ms. Reid on his Facebook wall 9 times over 2 years. He had around 400 friends and 5 to 25 people liked each post.

His posts insinuated that Ms. Reid is dishonest, a national disgrace, gender biased, a liar, is grossly incompetent, a despicable person, similar to a communist dictator, and a whole host of other defamatory insinuations.⁣

Ms. Reid sued him for defamation and claimed that his Facebook posts were "ridiculous" and completely false. However, she said that she became concerned that people were starting to believe him and that she was hurt by the people who 'liked' his posts. She also said that she became so emotionally distraught that it started to affect her home life with her partner. A witness in the case said that Ms. Reid was starting to become warn-down and was losing self-confidence. She eventually resigned as CEO, however, she said her resignation was not related to Mr. Dukic's Facebook posts.⁣

Mr. Dukic did not turn up for court and so he had no defence. He was ordered to pay Ms. Reid $182,700 and he was banned from posting about her on Facebook again.

Further Reading

• Case Name: Reid v Dukic [2016] ACTSC 344

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