A woman who made serious false allegations about her ex on social media has been ordered to pay him $200,000 for the reputational damage they caused.
Nga Atawhainga Adrianna Creagh has also been banned from repeating, or making allegations that come close to repeating, those claims against Brendon Ngarino Te Waati.
According to a High Court judgment, the pair had a brief relationship that ended in 2021.
Four years later, Creagh made four posts on her Facebook page, which had more than 2000 followers, making serious allegations against Te Waati.
Te Waati is a holistic wellness practitioner working within Te Ao Māori and founder of Te Whare Āio, an organisation that delivers wānanga and seminars on Māori wellbeing practices nationally and internationally.
In the first two posts, Creagh tagged Te Aho Matua, an organisation that runs Māori language immersion schools.
Te Waati provided evidence to the court of third parties spreading the allegations.
He said the posts had an “almost overnight effect” on his work. Monthly revenue of his trading company, Māori Movement, fell to zero and remained there.
He said a long-standing client cancelled forward bookings for 24 wānanga he was scheduled to deliver, citing the allegations against Te Waati.
His attendance at four national and four international seminars was also cancelled following the posts.
“In Mr Te Waati’s words, ‘work has dried up’,” Justice Jane Anderson said in her September High Court judgment.
Te Waati tried to stop...
A woman who made serious false allegations about her ex on social media has been ordered to pay him $200,000 for the reputational damage they caused. Nga Atawhainga Adrianna Creagh has also been b...