Founder of gossip website Tattle Life faces up to 40 more libel actions, court hears
Counsel for Sebastian Bond disclosed the scale of potential new claims as a judge refused to relax an order freezing £1.8m (€2.1m) of his assets.
Mr Bond has already been sued in a landmark defamation and harassment case taken by Co Antrim-based entrepreneurs Neil and Donna Sands.
The couple were awarded £300,000 in damages over abusive comments posted on Tattle Life following a two-year legal battle to uncover the operator of the online forum.
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Neil Sands (43) and wife Donna (34) sued after postings were published in 2021 on the website, which hosts message boards and comments about influencers, celebrities and other members of the public.
A judge who dealt with their case said the site had been set up to deliberately inflict hurt and harm by allowing the anonymous trashing of reputations and 'peddling untruths for profit'.
In June Mr Bond was named as a founder of Tattle Life after reporting restrictions were lifted.
Assets linked to him and two companies based in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong have also been frozen to ensure the damages award and associated costs can be met.
Mr Bond is now indicating he may challenge the court's jurisdiction and seek to have the judgment made against him set aside.
At a hearing on Thursday, his barrister argued the order should be varied so he could access assets to pay for lawyers to represent him properly.
David Mitchell said his client should not have to sell off separate cryptocurrency holdings of £1.6m, incurring capital gains tax of up to 24 per cent in the process.
'That is manifestly unfair and unnecessarily complicated when it would be more straightforward to permit him access to frozen UK bank accounts in order to fund this litigation,' Mr Mitchell said.
He said it would be 'a travesty of justice' if the defendant was forced to sell Bitcoin and then ultimately succeeded in having the judgment set aside.
'It is Mr Bond's case that a campaign has been conducted against him where other potential plaintiffs are being encouraged to bring proceedings,' Mr Mitchell said.
He revealed that up to 40 letters threatening possible further legal actions have now been sent.
'Mr Bond doesn't have the funds to pay for lawyers to represent him in any of these escalating claims,' Mr Mitchell said.
'It highlights the extreme predicament he finds himself in as a result of the freezing order.'
But Peter Girvan, for Mr and Mrs Sands, said they were facing a 'moving target' in trying to establish the defendant's finances.
'My clients' concern is that Mr Bond is trying to ringfence £1.6m in Bitcoin ... and if things don't go well for him he's at least got his crypto assets and can disappear with them,' he said.
Ruling on the legal bid, Mr Justice Humphreys cited a previously identified risk that funds could be dissipated.
Describing the Bitcoin as accessible 'at the click of a button', the judge identified no evidence for the tax-liability claims amid uncertainty over Mr Bond's residential status.
'The defendant has access to very considerable sums of money represented by cryptocurrency assets which can be liquidated by him for the purpose of paying for his legal representation,' he said.
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Photograph: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press Shannon was one of four children; first came a son, then three girls in three years, each born a year apart, with Shannon in the middle. 'They were very close,' says Paul. 'Shannon was an independent young girl, she liked doing her own thing, and was very easy to get on with, very easy-going.' She was into make-up, had 'the most beautiful ginger hair' and was funny – he laughs, remembering 'some of the one-liners she used to come out with'. 'Our conversations were always having a wee joke at each other, because each one thought they were as quick-witted as the other.' Shannon shared her mother Collette's passion for heavy metal and rock music, and was 'a really caring person,' he emphasises. 'No matter what lengths she had to go to care for somebody or something, she would go to those lengths.' This included saving a kitten and bringing home an injured duck; they still have her pet tortoise, Arthur. 'She was a nice girl, and a good daughter,' says Paul. That evening, Shannon and Owen were going out to a nightclub. According to the Police Ombudsman, they first came into contact with the PSNI and ambulance service at 2am, in a car park in Magherafelt. Shannon had fallen 'a number of times', hit her head and was unconscious, and had visible injuries to her leg. Subsequent tests showed both had high levels of alcohol in their blood. A decision was made to take them to hospital, but the ambulance personnel called police back to the car park after Shannon's behaviour became 'erratic'. Police agreed to follow the ambulance, but shortly before 3am, it pulled into a bus layby on the Moneynick Road in Magherfelt and called again for police assistance. Following a discussion between the emergency services, Shannon and Owen got out of the ambulance 'and were left, alone, at a bus shelter'. 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an hour ago
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