KB-2022-003483 - [2025] EWHC 1912 (KB)

I have directed myself in accordance with the well-established principles that I referred to at para 60 above. The statements were plainly ones of fact about how the Claimants had behaved, rather than the expressions of opinion.

As I have found that the natural and ordinary meanings of the passages relied upon entailed statements of fact that the Claimants had been responsible for very serious misconduct and criminal behaviour, I am quite satisfied that in each of the passages relied upon, the published words were defamatory at common law of the Claimants. They described conduct that was contrary to the shared values of society and that tended to have a substantial adverse effect on the way that people would treat the Claimants.