BEGA Valley Shire mayor Tony Allen has won a court case against Dalmeny woman Laurel Lloyd Jones.

The case involved a letter Ms Lloyd Jones wrote to the Premier of NSW in February 2009.

In the letter, Ms Lloyd Jones alleged that Mr Allen had gone to the Bermagui home of local woman Muriel Campbell against her express wishes and was aggressive and bullied her.

Specifically, the alleged incident was supposed to have occurred in the laneway next to Ms Campbell’s home in October, 2006, which prompted a letter of complaint about the local police response to the Ombudsman.

Almost three years later Ms Lloyd-Jones sent her letter to the ABC, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Committee for Reconciliation and Justice and NSW’s premier at the time, Nathan Rees.

Mr Allen sued Ms Lloyd Jones in the NSW District Court stating that the allegations were untrue and defamatory.

This was reported in the press locally and in the Sydney Morning Herald. A fund raising campaign to defray Ms Lloyd Jones’ legal costs was conducted and was advertised in some local publications.

The matter was heard late last year with the decision being handed down by Judge Andrew Colefax earlier this week.

The judge found that the allegations made by Ms Lloyd Jones were defamatory of Mr Allen and that when Ms Lloyd Jones made the allegations against Mr Allen, not only were they untrue, she knew they were untrue when she made them.

“In my view the defendant did know of the defamatory material...(and) I specifically reject the submission of the defendant that the defendant honestly believed what she wrote to be true, but was wrong.”

The judge found that there were “aspects of her evidence which caused me concern and which I concluded were evasive, problematic, and ultimately unreliable.”

He said he was “not impressed with Ms Campbell, the defendant or her husband as reliable witnesses”.

On the other hand, the judge said Mr Allen was an “impressive and straightforward witness” and told the truth about the meeting with Ms Campbell.

A summary of the case in the Gazette of Law and Journalism said the judge found Mr Allen did not attend Ms Campbell’s home against her express wishes, or bully or intimidate her, in fact did not act in any threatening, abusive or aggressive way towards Ms Campbell.

The judge noted that it was never put to Mr Allen in cross-examination that he grabbed Ms Campbell by the arm or spoke to her aggressively.

Two witnesses at the meeting described Mr Allen as trying to console Ms Campbell because “she was upset”.

The judge concluded that it was “inconceivable” that any of the witnesses would have “stood idly by” if Ms Campbell was being physically assaulted.

In a damning section of the judgement, the judge said “...her (Ms Lloyd Jones) version is so significantly different from that of the witnesses whom I have accepted, that the only available inference is that she knew what she wrote about the plaintiff was false... and reinforces my conclusion that (she) was motivated predominantly by malice”.

The judge ordered that Ms Lloyd Jones pay Mr Allen $50,000 in damages and a further $15,000 in “aggravated damages” because of the manner in which she conducted the court case.

“The allegations were in my view totally unreasonable and without foundation,” the judge said.

Submissions as to Ms Lloyd Jones’ obligation to pay both Mr Allen’s legal costs and interest will be heard on May 19.

According to solicitor Andrew Warren, the judgment “provides absolute vindication of Mr Allen”.

“The judge has made it abundantly clear that Ms Lloyd Jones lied about Mr Allen, and that she did so because she was primarily motivated by malice,” he said.

“Both the allegations and the long running court proceedings were a traumatic ordeal for Mr Allen, but he was determined to absolutely clear his reputation.

“The extraordinary strength of the Court’s judgment does just that.”

Ms Lloyd Jones has indicated she will appeal the decision.