Gravity of libel and post-publication trolling leads to award of aggravated damages in undefended defamation case

The facts

The claim related to a documentary that Charles Northcott, a journalist and filmmaker, had made for the BBC called ‘Sex for Grades: Undercover in Nigerian and Ghanaian Universities’. The defendant, an investigative journalist named David Hundeyin, published an article alleging that Mr Northcott had had an inappropriate personal relationship with a member of his team named Kiki Mordi and abused his position as director of the documentary.  

After provocative tweets from Mr Hundeyin, goading Mr Northcott and Ms Mordi into suing him, Mr Northcott did indeed issue proceedings. While Mr Hundevin had indicated in correspondence that he would defend the truth of what he wrote (and referred to Mr Northcott’s claim as “obvious attempts at SLAPP litigation”), he did not acknowledge service,…