"Your scumbag client won't get one cent. That I promise," a man wrote to the lawyer of a family dispute resolution practitioner in Australia, who claimed he'd defamed her. The man, Adam Whittington, has now been ordered to pay some $300,000 to Jasmin Newman, whom he's repeatedly defamed since 2019—including as the New South Wales Supreme Court evaluated the case, per the Guardian. It's not clear what issue Whittington, a self-described "child recovery agent," had with Newman, who's accredited to practice with Australia's Department of the Attorney-General. But he accused her of fraud, supporting pedophiles, and attacking women who sought to protect their sexually abused children.
Whittington, a British-Australian citizen who formerly worked for London's Metropolitan Police, claims to have saved hundreds of children from human traffickers through Project Rescue Children, a nonprofit he founded. However, a BBC investigation found evidence that Whittington fabricated stories about trafficked children and "borrowed" unsuspecting children to use as props for charity photos. A visit to PRC's supposed rescue center in remote Kenya revealed it to be the home of the mother of PRC's director in Kenya. There were no children there, according to the BBC.
NSW Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Chen found Whittington had repeatedly defamed Newman online, including as the court case was underway. He did not appear in court, where Chen noted his current residence is unknown. But he was in touch. On Dec. 12, Whittington emailed Newman's lawyer, complaining of "nonsense" correspondence and promising to "block you." That's when he vowed Newman "won't get one cent." Chen issued a permanent and mandatory injunction to block Whittington from continuing to defame Newman and ordered him to pay her $308,000. He noted the impact on Newman was "exacerbated not only by the defendant's failure to apologize, but by his continuing publication of defamatory matters." (More Australia stories.)
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