Craig Celebrating Victory with Defamation Win

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Colin Craig the former leader of the Conservative Party is celebrating today after the Christchurch High Court issued a judgment yesterday confirming that Mr Craig had been defamed by Mr John Stringer. Mr Stringer was found to have defamed Mr Craig in various statements that alleged Mr Craig had sexually harassed one or more women and in various statements that alleged Mr Craig had committed business or electoral fraud. In addition to providing a retraction and apology Mr Stringer has settled the matter by payment of a confidential sum.

“Obviously I am very happy to have concluded one of the legal battles with a clear and final result” said Mr Craig “There was never any doubt that I would be successful but it does feel good to have reached that point”

Mr Craig said he will be celebrating with his family today.

In 2014 the former Conservative Party Leader came under attack from two bloggers Mr Stringer (CoNZervative Blog) and Mr Slater (Whaleoil Blog). In response to that attack Mr Craig published a booklet entitled “Dirty Politics and Hidden Agendas” in which he claimed that the two bloggers had worked together in exchanging information and also that Mr Jordan Williams had supplied them with false allegations. He announced he would be taking legal action against all three.

“With the issuing of the judgement yesterday one of these three matters is resolved and the public have confirmation that I was right in what I have said about Mr Stringer and his claims” said Mr Craig “There are still two more attackers to deal with but I remain entirely confident that I will also be vindicated in those cases”

Mr Craig says that once the judgment against Mr Stringer is sealed he will be writing to media organisations to request that publications containing the defamatory allegations are taken down. “It’s nasty stuff and many media were misled at the time. I am willing to give them a chance to set the record straight” says Craig

Mr Craig, who is not a lawyer, represented himself in the case against Mr Stringer. He says that primarily that decision was motivated by cost considerations. “Defamation cases are very expensive to run and that was a big factor in the decision to run the case myself.”

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An Update of the other two Court Cases is as follows:

Update of Williams v Craig:

The outcome of the High Court proceeding between Mr Craig and Mr Williams is still awaiting a court decision. The case which received a high level of publicity, was heard in Auckland last September, but does not yet have a result after the jury returned a shock verdict that Mr Craig says was against the weight of evidence. A judgment that was issued in the course of that trial confirmed that on the basis of undisputed facts Mr Craig had come under attack from Mr Williams and he was therefore entitled to respond.

Update on Craig v Slater:

The matter is scheduled for a jury trial at the Auckland High Court in May this year.

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