Gay Australian man wins in defamation case

SUMMARY: Australian gay rights activists are hailing a judge's decision this week declaring a television station guilty of defamation for running stories accusing an openly gay lawyer of pedophilia.

Australian gay rights activists are hailing a judge's decision this week declaring a television station guilty of defamation for running stories accusing an openly gay lawyer of pedophilia.

John Marsden sued Australia's Channel Seven for damaging his reputation with reports in 1995 and 1996 claiming Marsden had sex with under-age boys. Supreme Court Justice David Levine said he was satisfied that the alleged events did not occur and that the station had sullied Marsden's "good and settled general reputation" with their "grave and false imputations," which he said were motivated by "malice."

"This is a really strong message from the court that there's not necessarily a relationship between homosexuality and child mistreatment or pedophilia," Anthony Schembri, of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, told The Melbourne Age. "What the court has also said is that it's possible to have a good reputation, a settled reputation, as an openly gay person and the lobby believes this to be very important. Too often, we hear that being gay or lesbian is to be of a bad reputation, and the court has found that that's certainly not the case."

The judge awarded Marsden $525,000 (Australian dollars) for "hurt feelings, as well as damage to his good name."

"Although I have won, I have lost," Marsden told reporters. He said he would never fully recover from the damage done by claims he was a pedophile.

Channel Seven attorneys, who offered testimony from 11 young men to back up their claim, immediately announced their plans to appeal the judge's decision.