Man bust for Facebook insults

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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That’s what happened to an Eldorado Park man, Duane Brady, who allegedly left a string of defamatory messages for Daniella Cox, a friend of his wife.

Cox reported these to the police and Brady appeared yesterday in the Kliptown Magistrate’s Court on charges of crimen injuria and common assault. He was not asked to plead.

Crimen injuria is a criminal offence committed when a person deliberately injures another’s reputation.

Experts believe this case could prompt others.

Peter Grealy, a partner at the Webber Wentzel law firm, said: ‘‘With the advent of the Internet there’s no doubt that you can be defamed. The difficulty lies in how you prove that that person is responsible.

‘‘I am not aware of any other such cases and this case may well be the catalyst to people coming forward.”

He said some social networking sites contained images and videos, posted especially by teenagers, that invaded people’s privacy and were derogatory.

‘‘The offence is not new … one commits crimen injuria by being derogatory or defamatory, basically causing injury to that person’s reputation,’’ Grealy said.

Paul Jacobson, a web and digital media lawyer, said this case was the first he had heard of involving a Facebook posting.

‘‘People need to be educated about which forms of expression are legitimate and which are not.”

An officer at the Eldorado Park police station, who did not want to be named, told The Times Brady had been arrested on Monday and charged with crimen injuria after a woman laid the charge against him.

“He apparently wrote some statement on Facebook about her and when she approached him about it, he allegedly called her a b**ch and said that she sleeps around so she can buy drugs.

‘‘His mother called and asked whether it was correct for the police to arrest him late at night and I said that as long as police are on duty, they can arrest anyone at any time,’’ the police captain said.

Brady was remanded in custody until his bail application next Wednesday.

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