Slander Lawsuit: Radio Host Ray Hadley Pays $280k in Defamation Damages to Sydney Woman
Australian 2GB radio broadcaster Ray Hadley has been found guilty of defaming Ms Kim Ahmed, a Sydney fish and chip shop owner, and told to pay her $280,000 in damages. The radio commentator branded the woman as "vile" and a "grub" while interviewing a man, who had accused Kim’s husband of molesting his teenage daughter, in 2008.
Ms Ahmad’s husband Emran was sentenced for indecently assaulting an HSC student working at Seafood Lovers, Kim’s fish and chip shop located at the Carlingford Court shopping centre. She stood by her husband throughout the trial and even successfully sought an Apprehended Violence Order claiming that the victim’s father intimidated her.
In May 2008, the Sydney District Court dismissed the appeal by Emran and held him guilty of indecent assault. Next day, in an interview with the victim’s father, Ray Hadley went on an unbridled defamatory on-air tirade against Ms Ahmad and called her "vile", "a silly woman" and "grub".
"If this bloke [Emran Ahmed] has any connection with [the fish shop] and his grub of a wife, they should completely and utterly be sent out of business,” he told on the radio.
He also repeated his comments in 2009. It prompted Ms Ahmad to issue a slander notice and consequently file a defamation lawsuit claiming that such comments "destroyed her excellent reputation" she had earned while working for abused people. Judge Henric Nicholas ordered Hadley to pay $280,000 in damages, interests on the compensation and legal cost the plaintiff had to bear to fight the defamation lawsuit.
Ray Hadley has been ordered to pay $280,000 in damages to a former fish and chip shop owner whom he described as "vile" and a "grub" during a defamatory on-air tirade, with the judge expressing the hope that the broadcast would now be laid to rest "in the gutter from which it came".
The day after Ahmed lost his appeal in the District Court in May 2008, Hadley interviewed the victim's father and ended the segment with an "unbridled tirade" against Ms Ahmed which was "spat into the microphone", acting Justice Nicholas said.
"The publicly inflicted harm entitles her to an award which vindicates her reputation and marks the baselessness of the defamation. An award of the court which operates to vindicate her reputation should enable the plaintiff to lay this broadcast to rest in the gutter from which it came,” the court ruled.
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