Harry Potter author and outspoken gender critic J.K. Rowling has thrown her support behind expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming following her massive defamation win.
Ms Deeming won her high profile defamation case against Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto and was awarded $300,000 in damages in the Federal Court on Thursday.
Federal Court Justice David O’Callaghan found Mr Pesutto defamed Ms Deeming by suggesting or implying that she was a Nazi or Nazi sympathiser last year when booting her out of the Liberal party after she attended a gender critical rally.
‘The Judge found that I was defamed in five separate publications and that each of those also caused serious harm to my reputation. Every single one of Mr Pesutto’s defences, failed,’ Ms Deeming wrote on X.
‘This judgment is a public acknowledgment that there was never any justification- legal, moral or political – for what the Opposition Leader did to me and to my family.’
Ms Rowling reshared Ms Deeming’s post to her 14.2million followers, writing: ‘The “right side of history” is racking up a hell of a lot of losses recently, isn’t it? Congratulations @MoiraDeemingMP’.
Ms Rowling is an outspoken critic of certain aspects of transgender activism, which she perceives as potentially harmful to women’s rights and safety.
Ms Deeming alleged Mr Pesutto defamed her following a Let Women Speak rally in Melbourne in March 2023, which was gatecrashed by a group of neo-Nazi protesters on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament, a claim he denied.
Harry Potter author and outspoken gender critic J.K. Rowling (pictured) congratulated Ms Deeming following her defamation win over Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto
Expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming (pictured) won her defamation case against Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto and was awarded $300,000 in damages
However, Justice O’Callaghan found Mr Pesutto defamed Mrs Deeming in a media release, two radio interviews, a press conference and in a party expulsion motion.
The judge ruled Mr Pesutto implied Ms Deeming was unfit to be in the parliamentary Liberal Party because of her associations with Nazis.
Mr Pesutto was not in court to hear the decision, while Ms Deeming was supported by her husband and a group of women.
The group cheered after the judge left the bench, while Ms Deeming’s husband gave her a hug.
The total bill for Mr Pesutto could be up to $2million, according to the Herald Sun.
In his ruling, Justice O’Callaghan struck down Mr Pesutto’s defences of public interest, honest opinion and common law qualified privilege.
He also said the defence of contextual truth was not relevant.
Outside court, Ms Deeming made a brief statement to waiting media.
J.K. Rowling reposted Ms Deeming’s media statement to her 14.2million followers. The post is pictured
‘Obviously I am just so delighted with today’s result and I am very grateful to the court for their prompt consideration,’ she said.
‘I just want to say think you to everybody who stood by with me and we are just going to get out there and get sex-based rights for women and child safeguards for children.’
Justice O’Callaghan had some harsh words for Mr Pesutto’s testimony during the trial, noting his cross examination took four days.
‘The length of it was in due in considerable part to his inability or refusal to give a simple answer to simple enough questions,’ Justice O’Callaghan wrote in his ruling.
The judge said he understood that when politicians ‘are engaged in the cut and thrust of politics’ and facing tough questions in press conferences ‘their job can involve deflecting questions, pivoting to another topic or running out the clock’.
However, Justice O’Callaghan said such evasions were ‘not the role of a witness in a court proceeding’.
Mr Pesutto (pictured with wife Betty Pesutto) was not in Federal Court to hear the ruling against him
Neo-Nazi protesters gatecrashed a women’s rights protest in March 2023 leading to Mr Pesutto expelling Ms Deeming from the Liberal party
‘Time and time again Mr Pesutto gave lengthy and non-responsive answers,’ he wrote.
During the three-and-a-half-week trial in September, Ms Deeming, who is now an independent MP, told the court the black-clad men who were escorted into the women’s rally area by police had nothing to do with her protest.
Mr Pesutto was also sued by British women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen and fellow Let Women speak rally organiser Angie Jones but settled those cases out of court in May.
As part of that settlement he was forced to issue a grovelling apology.
