{"id":471865,"date":"2026-05-06T21:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471865\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T21:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:09:10","slug":"tattle-life-couple-vow-to-fight-for-justice-after-losing-300000-damages-against-gossip-website-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471865\/","title":{"rendered":"Tattle Life: Couple vow to \u2018fight for justice\u2019 after losing \u00a3300,000 damages against gossip website \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Co Antrim<\/a> couple who sued a controversial gossip website over abusive comments have pledged to continue their \u201cfight for justice\u201d for online abuse victims after losing a \u00a3300,000 (\u20ac347,000) award in a legal ruling.<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs Neil and Donna Sands had their libel damages against Tattle Life set aside by a High Court judge in Belfast<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Judge Michael Humphreys said that there was a failure to establish that the site\u2019s founder, Sebastian Bond, knew of the court proceedings.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s legal team had failed to properly serve a writ in the case they took against Bond, he ruled.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Irish Times, the couple described the judgment as \u201clengthy and technical\u201d.<\/p>\n

They are taking time to review it before \u201cconsidering our next steps,\u201d they said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

An order freezing \u00a31.8 million in Bond\u2019s worldwide assets was also lifted following the judgment.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, the couple received awards of \u00a3150,000 in damages, plus legal costs, in an action over what they regarded as a form of \u201chate speech\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, they insisted that they \u201cnever took on this work for financial gain\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TattleTattle Life hosts message boards and comments about influencers, celebrities and other members of the public <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has always been about accountability for the victims of online abuse and unmasking those responsible who try to deliberately remain hidden in the shadows,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight for justice for victims goes on and we are grateful for the continued support of a huge community of people online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proceedings centred on postings published on Tattle Life, which hosts message boards and comments about influencers, celebrities and other members of the public.<\/p>\n

The couple launched a two-year legal battle to uncover the operator of the online forum.<\/p>\n

Neil Sands, a 44-year-old technology entrepreneur, and his wife Donna (35), who runs a fashion business, claimed they had been subject to a campaign of harassment, invasion of privacy, defamation and breach of data rights.<\/p>\n

Another judge who previously dealt with their case said the site had been set up to deliberately inflict hurt and harm by allowing the anonymous trashing of reputations and \u201cpeddling untruths for profit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bond was publicly named as a founder of Tattle Life after reporting restrictions were lifted last June.<\/p>\n

Assets linked to him and two companies based in the UK and Hong Kong were also frozen to ensure the damages award and associated costs could be met.<\/p>\n

Bond mounted a legal bid to have the judgment against him set aside based on alleged failures to make full disclosures in court applications and flaws in how the writ was served.<\/p>\n

Lawyers representing the website founder and Hong Kong company Kumquat Tree Ltd, both defendants in the original action, claimed an abuse of process and sought to set aside the court\u2019s offer for substituted service (SSO).<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, a solicitor for the couple accepted previous evidence had been incomplete and that information known about Bond should have been disclosed earlier.<\/p>\n

An apology [by the couple\u2019s legal team] was offered for what was described as honest mistakes not intended to mislead or create any tactical advantage in the legal battle.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish influencers trolled on Tattle Life: \u2018They said I\u2019m a bad mum. That I\u2019m ugly. They wrote my address on it\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ruling on the application, Judge Michael Humphreys identified no improper motive and declined to strike out the action as an abuse of process.<\/p>\n

However, he concluded the proceedings were not properly served in compliance with the SSO.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo explanation has been provided by the plaintiffs\u2019 solicitors for the defective service of the application to enter judgment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is also apparent that these irregularities were not mere technicalities. \u201cThey had very serious consequences for the defendants in terms of the further steps the plaintiffs were able to take in obtaining judgment, injunctive relief and a worldwide freezing order (WFO).\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge issued a declaration that the writ had not been served on either Bond or Kumquat Tree Ltd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judgment against the defendants is set aside,\u201d he confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also follows in these circumstances that the WFO must be set aside insofar as it relates to the defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Antrim couple who sued a controversial gossip website over abusive comments have pledged to continue their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[17296,663,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,954,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-471865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-antrim","9":"tag-belfast","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-northern-ireland","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116529684001402509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}