It’s an adage, almost a cliche: ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’, but genuinely, that has to be one’s response to news this last week: That dirty PR attack blogger Cameron Slater has (finally) been judged in the High Court to have defamed Auckland businessman Matt Blomfield.
Further, that Slater’s false and damaging campaign of destruction of Blomfield’s reputation was not motivated by any principled conviction, ‘honest opinion’, or in pursuit of the ‘public interest’ as Slater had variously claimed. No, it was typically shabby:
Slater carried out a vendetta for a former business colleague of Blomfield’s, it seems likely for reward or other ‘consideration’.
Dirty PR for hire, as we have seen from this bantam rooster before.
Justice Johnstone’s 20 Feb 2024 High Court Judgment (available here, and archived below) stops slightly short of that making that ‘for hire’ point, at para 101
Mr Blomfield argued that Whale Oil must have been paid to publish the posts.
He pointed to a photograph of Mr Slater in Las Vegas, taken when it appears Mr Powell and other associates were holidaying there, suggesting Mr Slater was being hosted. However, the evidence is insufficient to establish that Whale Oil received a financial advantage specifically for publishing the posts. That said, it is clear from the fact of their publication that Whale Oil expected to derive some benefit, whether in terms of attention, notoriety, enjoyment of others’ misfortune, or otherwise.
But readers of this blog will know there’s plenty of ‘Walks like a duck’-style evidence (if not proof) that Cameron Slater, like his paymaster/ghostwriter Carrick Graham, acted as a paid character assassin over the years. Sleazy, dishonest defamers. Heck, there’s even invoices.
The judge says (para 119)
Mr Blomfield’s evidence satisfied me that the personal impact of the defamatory statements published about him, relentlessly alleging a wide range of criminal activities, was extreme. I have described the nature of Whale Oil’s campaign against Mr Blomfield as amounting to a wholesale attack. It was undertaken maliciously, for reasons other than genuine belief in their truth. …
So, as I read that, another High Court judge has just described Cameron Slater a relentless, malicious liar. (Yeah, well that’s been my view for a while, eh? Check it out.)
While this week’s High Court judgment puts a cap on it…
I grant Mr Blomfield judgment, and award compensatory damages in the sum of $475,000, payable by each of Mr Slater and Social Media, jointly and severally.
…there’s no prospect of Blomfield receiving any payment from Slater (bankrupt) or his Whale Oil company Social Media Consultants Ltd (in liquidation). Being the slippery no-account loser that he is, Slater (“I never lose”) put himself into bankruptcy to avoid a previous court-ordered damages payment. Then, briefly flirting with a oh-no-I-don’t-own-the-shares-in-that-company-my-wife-Juana-does dumbarse ‘strategy’, he/they put Social Media Consultants Ltd into liquidation.
Honestly, there’s not a lot that I need to repeat from my 2019 review of Margie Thomson’s book Whaleoil about the Blomfield saga, Cameron Slater is a liar. We already knew that, but it’s actually worse.
Thomson herself (probably doing PR for Blomfield, still) put out a press release heralding Justice Johnstone’s 20 February 2024 High Court judgment:
Auckland Man Resoundingly Defeats Cameron Slater And The Whale Oil Blog In Judgment On Longrunning Defamation Case
Press Release: Margie Thomson Friday, 23 February 2024, 8:53 am
Matt Blomfield fought for twelve years to clear his name from the defamatory attacks launched against him on the Whale Oil blog, owned and operated by Cameron Slater. The series of posts alleged a wide range of criminal activities, accusations that shattered Blomfield’s career and social standing.
In a judgment released today (attached below), Blomfield is completely vindicated, with Justice Johnstone of the High Court finding the Whale Oil posts to be ‘false and seriously defamatory’, written with malice, and with clear intention to destroy Blomfield’s reputation.
Compensatory damages of $475,000 are awarded to Blomfield.
The posts, published in 2012 when the Whale Oil blog attracted 317,000 views a month, ‘can only have been published for the ancillary purpose of fostering abusive and unjustified comments about Blomfield by commentators’, Justice Johnstone stated.
The story was recounted in the 2019 book ‘Whale Oil: One man’s fight to save his reputation, then his life’, by author Margie Thomson with a foreword by Nicky Hager. They are delighted and relieved that this judgment brings to an end the mighty effort he has been forced to expend in order to clear his name. ‘It took an exceptional man to keep going in the face of such an attack,’ Margie Thomson said, ‘let alone to take a defamation case through our legal system and not be squashed by the process.’
He never dreamed it was to take him twelve years.
As the malicious blogs appeared, Blomfield’s business opportunities fell away. The campaign against him did not just take place on the blog, but also manifested in relentless, nasty messages across a number of platforms to both him and his wife, and in a terrifying armed attack on the Blomfield’s home that he has always maintained was related, whether directly or indirectly, to the campaign of abuse. Johnstone set aside the matter of the attack.
At first, broke and with nothing to lose, Blomfield represented himself in his defamation proceedings, even though he had no legal training. Later he was represented by and had crucial support from Wellington barrister Felix Geiringer. For this final hearing in the High Court, which occurred in September 2023, he again represented himself.
The Whale Oil posts included material stolen from Blomfield’s own filing cabinet of documents, and a hard drive, which had been in the care of a former business associate. ‘Whale Oil has never fully explained the circumstances in which it gained access to this material’, Johnstone wrote in his judgment, despite several court orders that Slater do so. Justice Johnstone stated that ‘there can be no coincidence’ that the blog attacks happened following a falling out between Blomfield and that same business associate. This leads the judge to use the word ‘vendetta’ – a word already applied to this case by Justice Asher of the Appeal Court back in 2014. The Human Rights Review Tribunal in 2019 described the attack as ‘an extended assassination of [Blomfield’s] character’.
In his 34-page judgment, Johnstone outlines the delays that have stretched this case out over nearly a dozen years – ‘delays largely caused by Whale Oil’, designed to obstruct justice, in a litany of non-compliance, contempts of court, interlocutory applications and appeals.
While there have been earlier important steps along the way in this case, such as when Justice Davison in the High Court in October 2018 ruled Slater’s defence inadmissible, today’s comprehensive ruling by Johnstone is the final step: he has apportioned a value to the damage done and made a clear ruling of defamation.
Johnstone’s judgment provides strong validation of Blomfield’s long battle to clear his name and reputation from the defamation published by Whale Oil.
Scoop media
Now, that’s a clearly a release written from Team Blomfield, but you know what? Fair enough.
Slater and his dirty PR crew of clients, enablers and acolytes had their run. According to Thomson’s book, ‘Operation Bumslide’ was Warren Powell, Marc Spring and Amanda Easterbrook, who with sleazebag Cameron Slater dreamt up various ways to make Blomfield’s life hell …
Just as Thomson/Blomfield says in that news release, J Johnstone’s High Court judgment released this week is detailed and damning.
As well as the disorganised mess and utter vacuity of Slater’s so-called defences (“truth” and “honest opinion” – riiiight) Justice Johnstone comprehensively exposes Cameron Slater’s repeated efforts to delay and obstruct the fateful day he would be held accountable. Some extracts:
So, as interesting as I found J Johnstone’s 2024 judgment, I actually found (and still do) the ‘Reasons Judgment’ of Justice Paul Davison from 2018 even more damning. (NZLII Link here and I’ve archived it below.)
Davison’s judgement is long, and fascinating — and it really informed my already low opinion of Cameron Slater’s veracity, truthfulness and, in a word, character.
The awful obviousness of Slater trying to ‘run out the clock’ and wear Blomfield out, to delay and obstruct the case against him is also abundantly clear from this listing of just some of the Court procedures as Slater ducked and dived to try to avoid being held to account:
Anyway, a belated congratulations to Matt Blomfield for staying alive and keeping on Slater’s case.
Good on Felix Geiringer for his support. Now that’s work in the public interest, if you ask me.
-P
Facts are stated to the best of my knowledge and commentary is my honest opinion. Corrections or clarifications are always welcome by email. Comments are open, but may be moderated.
– Best wishes, Peter Aranyi
Archived copies:
J Johnstone 20 Feb 2024 High Court Judgement click here
J Paul Davison 26 Oct 2018 High Court Reasons Judgment click here
For sheer entertainment value, here’s a 2019 Stuff opinion piece by Damien Grant (I know, right? lol):
Harpooned by the truth: Cameron Slater’s thuggish ways stymied after long and painful defamation case
