The Royal Courts of Justice in the UK has found David Hundeyin, a Nigerian investigative journalist, guilty of libel against Charles Northcott, a BBC journalist.
The court ordered Hundeyin to pay £95,000 in damages for defamatory claims made in his article Journalism Career Graveyard.
The ruling, delivered on October 8, 2024, also mandated the removal of the offensive sections of the article from the hosting website.
Hundeyin had accused Northcott of exploiting his role as director of the Sex for Grades documentary to obtain sexual favors from Kiki Mordi, a Nigerian Emmy-nominated journalist who was the documentary’s on-screen reporter. Hundeyin further claimed that Northcott favored Mordi over Oge Obi, whom Hundeyin alleged was the original mastermind behind the project. Northcott denied these allegations, stating they caused severe professional and personal harm.
The court accepted Northcott’s evidence of the libel’s impact, noting the damage to his reputation and the emotional distress caused. It described Hundeyin’s conduct post-publication, including a social media campaign, as aggravating, stating that his actions were intended to cause maximum harm and humiliation.
Northcott’s analysis showed the article and related posts gained over 40 million online impressions between September and October 2022, a significant proportion of which came from England and Wales. Despite being ordered to remove the defamatory article in July 2024, Hundeyin failed to comply.
Hundeyin’s social media posts included direct provocations, daring Mordi and others to sue him, and he publicly shared unrelated footage of Northcott and Mordi, claiming it supported his allegations. The court dismissed these claims, finding no evidence of an inappropriate relationship and labeling Hundeyin’s actions as trolling and defamatory.
Northcott was represented by Ms. Wilson, while Hundeyin neither attended the proceedings nor sent legal representation.