KB-2025-000232 - [2025] EWHC 1784 (KB)

The Claimant said that he had never intended to suggest that the Defendant was the author of the England Athletics emails; and he could see from their formatting in the redacted versions that the First and Second Emails had not been sent by the same person (albeit, he did not know at that stage who those persons were). The unredacted emails were not available when the Particulars of Claim were drafted.

In terms of the Defendant’s responsibility for the publication of the emails, Mr Ness’ case was that she had orchestrated a smear campaign aimed at damaging his reputation, which had involved not only Michelle and Joanna Sojka, but also a number of anonymous participants, including Ms Gauntlett.

Mr Ness took me through a timeline of the events and material that he relied upon. The first in time document was an email about his activities which Ms Gauntlett had sent to Walton AC on 28 September 2023. He drew attention to an anonymous blogpost from 20 December 2023 entitled “Conspiracy Coconut Chris Ness” which spoke of him in unflattering terms, including referring to him being “a narcissist that sits in his camper van munching his Doritos and wearing his tin foil hat”. He noted that a link to this blogpost had been tweeted by Joanna Sojka and a Jan Jordyn, who, he said, were both linked to Truth Finders. He then referred to a negative tweet about him from an anonymous account “Mvolunteer@76”, who he claimed was Ms Gauntlett, noting that the tweet had included the sentence, “Don’t think they give out Doritos in a police cell”. He relied on this further reference to Doritos as indicating that Ms Gauntlett was also the author of the 20 December 2023 blogpost.

The Claimant referred what he said was the Defendant’s leading role in a legal “cease and desist” letter that was served on him as indicative of her leading role more generally within what he termed “the Group”. He also relied on each of the points that he explored in cross-examination, which I have already summarised at para 51 above. In relation to the events of 8 March 2024 (when he was arrested and detained in the early hours), Mr Ness provided his bail notification form, indicating that the document was printed for him to sign at 18:45 hours that day. He emphasised that the Fifth Email had been sent prior to this time at 18:37 hours. He also referred to a document from Surrey Police, in which it was said, “On 8 March 2024 you were arrested in relation to this matter on suspicion of stalking and harassment. JM [the Defendant] was updated by email by PC Whitman in relation to your arrest”.

The Claimant relied upon the pleaded meanings in the Particulars of Claim, in terms of the natural and ordinary meaning of the words complained of in the emails.