A vlogger who is being sued for £10,000 by prominent landlord Fergus Wilson over online comments he made about him has received legal backing from two prominent lawyers.
Danny Hyde is facing a private prosecution from Wilson following comments on his YouTube channel Danny Hyde TV.
Wilson is angry about a video criticising the landlord’s policy to ban non-white tenants “because of the curry smell they leave behind,” so has brought a private prosecution under the Malicious Communications Act.
A crowdfunding campaign had been set up to support Hyde, currently on £834 of its £10,000 target, but now he has received legal support.
Giles Peaker, a partner at Anthony Gold and editor of the Nearly Legal housing law blog, has said he is working pro-bono on the case with dispute resolution lawyer Gerard Clarke of Blackstone Chambers.
Peaker said: “There will be more on this when the case is done, but for now, our position is the claim as brought is completely hopeless and discloses no cause of action.
“It appears to be an attempt to bully our client simply because he has said something that Fergus Wilson personally doesn’t like.
“Neither Gerard Clarke nor myself will be seeking any fees from our client, but if it covered disbursements like travel costs and so on, that would be nice.”
A hearing is scheduled for January 31 at Yeovil County Court where the lawyers will try to get the claim thrown out.
BIG respect from me Mr Peaker, well done!
I have to say I was concerned a £10,000 crowdfund is £10,000 in the pocket if there isn’t a case. I like this solution!
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Excellent news re Mr Peaker. Pleased to her my modest contribution will be going to support Peaker’s skill ( I assume there will be costs in addition to himself).
Sincerely hope Mr Hyde (who I’d never heard of before) wins.
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Very pleased to report twitter says Fergus lost, and costs of £3k awarded for Fergus to pay.
https://twitter.com/nearlylegal/status/958727955861196800
Good old British Justice!
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