The Queensland-based YouTuber Karl Jobst has been ordered to pay over 350,000 Australian dollars (plus interest) in damages to Billy Mitchell, by an Australian court (h/t: PC Gamer).
The verdict, which was delivered earlier today (on April 1st) stated that Jobst had defamed Mitchell in a YouTube video uploaded to his channel on May 26th, 2021 called "The Biggest Conmen in Video Game History Strike Again!".
In this video, Jobst had accused Billy Mitchell of cheating and of pursuing unmerited litigation against people who accused him of cheating and had implied that Mitchell's actions were a contributing factor to the suicide of one of Mitchell's critics — a YouTuber named Apollo Legend (real name Benjamin Smith) in 2020.
He also stated in the same video that "when Billy Mitchell thought Apollo died earlier he expressed joy at the thought".
As stated in the judgment, Mitchell's lawsuit wasn't related to any accusations of cheating or the legitimacy of Donkey Kong scores, but instead Mitchell's allegation that a reasonable person would understand Jobsts' statements in this video to suggest he was "a major contributing factor" in Apollo Legend’s decision to take his own life.
Jobst, meanwhile, denied this and argued that Mitchell had "a settled bad reputation", that was not damaged further by the video, using the defense of "contextual truth". He claimed that "the video contained a number of other imputations (including that Mr. Mitchell had a reputation as a cheat) that were substantially true and, as a result, his reputation was not further harmed by any of the imputations"
In his findings, the judge for the case conceded that, although Mitchell may had the previous reputations alleged by Jobst and that the defamatory video may have raised other substantially true statements about him, Mitchell had "suffered substantially more personal and reputational harm" because of Jobst's allegations about him.
Jobst has been ordered to pay $300,000 (plus interest of $34,668.50) for non-economic loss and $50,000, (plus interest of $5,778.08) for aggravated damages.
You can read the full verdict here.