The Royal Courts of Justice, a British court, has found David Hundeyin, a self-styled Nigerian investigative journalist, guilty of libel and has ordered him to pay the sum of \u00a395,000as damages to Charles Northcott, the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC)\u2019s Journalist who Hundeyin made weighty allegations against in his \u201dJournalism Career Graveyard\u201d article.<\/p>\n
Hundeyin had made several allegations against Northcott following the publication of his article, including accusing Northcott of using his position as the director of the documentary film to obtain sexual favours from Kiki Mordi, Nigerian Emmy-nominated journalist, who was the on-screen reporter for the BBC\u2019s Sex for Grades documentary.
\n\u201cI accept C\u2019s evidence that D\u2019s libel has had a very serious impact on him both professionally and personally and caused him serious harm and distress. His witness statement adopts and develops the particulars of harm pleaded in the PoC, and I accept both in their entirety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court awards C \u00a395,000 damages, including aggravated damages. This is an appropriate sum to compensate C for the damage to his reputation caused by D and to vindicate his good name; and it takes appropriate account of the distress, hurt and humiliation which D\u2019s false and defamatory publication has caused him, as well as D\u2019s aggravating conduct,\u201d the court\u2019s documentcourt\u2019s document on the case read n part.
\nIt also ordered the website operators to remove the relevant part of Hundeyin\u2019s article, which it found offensive.<\/p>\n
The court passed this judgment on October 8, 2024. Northcott, the complainant, was represented by Ms Wilson, while Hundeyin was neither present nor represented in court. The court noted that it passed judgment in Hundeyin\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
In 2019, freelance journalist Ms Mordi collaborated with a team from the BBC to produce a 54-minute documentary. This documentary exposed how lecturers at certain Nigerian universities prey on vulnerable female students, such as those facing academic challenges, seeking admission, or in need of mentorship, by demanding sexual favours in exchange for academic benefits.<\/p>\n
She worked alongside Norcott and other journalists on the project.<\/strong> \n\u201cI worked with a colleague to run an analysis of the defamatory Article, and its associated hashtags and tweets by Mr Hundeyin, to see how far it had spread between 27 September and 31 October 2022. This analysis suggested the content had received more than 40 million online impressions during this period (which are calculated by tracking the total number of times the content was displayed across Twitter on users\u2019 feeds and on search results). A large percentage of these would have been abroad, but a very significant proportion of Mr Hundeyin\u2019s followers are in England and Wales. He was educated here, has been invited to speak publicly here… and he\u2019s launched two books here \u2013 which are sold in British bookstores,\u201d Northcott\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n \nFollowing the article\u2019s publication, Hundeyin made posts where he tagged Mordi\u2019s handle on X, daring her and others who had issues with the expose to sue him.<\/p>\n \nOn one occasion, he wrote: \u201cThen why don\u2019t you sue me for categorically stating that you had sex multiple times with @CNorthcott1 in the course of producing that documentary and that this formed the sole basis of your fraudulent \u201ccareer\u201d?\u2026,\u201d Hundeyin\u2019s post on October 1, 2022, read in part.<\/p>\n \nAnother of his posts read, \u201cAs for the people who are constantly threatening \u2018legal steps\u2019 because my stories have exposed their true nature to their international donors, NGOs and state actors, here is @WestAfricaWeek\u2019s address. If you don\u2019t sue me, you are all bastards. I double dare you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \nHundeyin also posted a video of Northcott and Mordi climbing onto the base of a statue in Trafalgar Square. Hundeyin wrote, \u201cHi @kikimordi. I\u2019m sure you never thought this video of you and @CNorthcott1 would ever surface, but that is why real journalism will never die when people like me are around. Your \u2018career\u2019 is over, you glory hunting, honey trapping fraud!\u2019 as the video\u2019s caption.<\/p>\n \nNorthcott sued Hundeyin for libel, stating that his actions seriously impacted his career and caused him damages. The court ordered Hundeyin to take down the article but ignored the orders.<\/p>\n \nThe court noted that the video showed nothing to corroborate the Defendant\u2019s allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship. It added that Hundeyin\u2019s behaviour post-publication comfortably fell within the principles of aggravated damages and trolling, which caused Mordi and Northcott distress. <\/p>\n Full Judgment below:<\/p>\n\r\n The Royal Courts of Justice, a British court, has found David Hundeyin, a self-styled Nigerian investigative journalist, guilty of libel and has ordered him to pay the sum of \u00a395,000as damages to Charles Northcott, the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC)\u2019s Journalist who Hundeyin made weighty allegations against in his \u201dJournalism Career Graveyard\u201d article. Hundeyin had made<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,1280],"tags":[1393,1392,1332],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThree years after the release of the documentary, Hundeyin published an article titled \u201dJournalism Career Graveyard\u201d, where he accused Norcott of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with Mordi and favoured her to work on the Sex for Grades documentary while sidelining and deceiving Oge Obi, whom Hundeyin claimed was the brain behind the BBC documentary.
\nIn September 2022, X (formerly Twitter) went agog after Hundeyin shared the expose on his profile. The article, its associated hashtags, and tweets garnered substantive traction following Hundeyin\u2019s post.
\nNorthcott said the post received more than 40 million online impressions between September 27 and October 31, 2022.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAll of D\u2019s behaviour post-publication comfortably falls within the principles in relation to aggravated damages that I outlined earlier. D, having seriously libelled C, then embarked upon a campaign of trolling and persecution in a manner calculated to cause C and Ms Mordi maximum distress and damage. Moreover, he has failed to take down the Article as ordered by this court in July.\u201d<\/p>\n