activities), it was defamatory. The submissions advanced on his behalf both in writing and orally proceeded on the assumption that the primary tweet went no further than saying that Mr Latham was "raising disgust at homosexual sex in response to himself being called disgusting" and that so understood, that would not make the ordinary reasonable person think any less of Mr Greenwich. Mr Smark put his submissions as follows:
Having regard to the present standard of community attitudes, towards people's private sexual lives, if it's right to say, as we say it is, that an allegation that people are homosexual, or men are homosexual, or that a man or a group of men engage in homosexual intercourse, is not defamatory to ordinary reasonable people in 2024, or 2023 … then the question is – and we say the answer to that is that's correct, it's not – then what is relevantly different about the primary tweet – relevantly different? Can it be that the difference to the ordinary reasonable person who thinks what people do in their own bedroom is up to them, as long as no one's hurt and as long as there aren't children involved, can it be supposed that the type of homosexual intercourse makes a difference to the ordinary reasonable person?
…
But the context – the fact that the ordinary reasonable reader would see that Mr Latham is referring to – raising disgust at homosexual sex in response to him himself being called disgusting – how is that going to make people think less of Mr Greenwich? And we say the position is advanced by invoking the ridicule test, because they still – the ridicule mechanism still has to be brought within … the main test, and as we sought to illustrate by reference to the ridicule cases, that the mechanism – it's one thing to attempt to expose someone to ridicule, but to successfully ridicule someone in a way that carries a meaning that lowers them in the estimation of right-minded people is very challenging.
157 I do not accept those submissions, because, in my view, the ordinary reasonable person would not read the primary tweet as being limited to homosexual men generally, or that they would shrug off the tweet in the way Mr Smark suggests. In my view, the primary tweet exposed Mr Greenwich to hatred, contempt and ridicule for the reasons submitted by Dr Collins, and the ordinary reasonable person would think less of Mr Greenwich because the literal meaning of the tweet is that he engages in disgusting sexual activities.
158 For those reasons, I find that the first pleaded imputation is defamatory of Mr Greenwich.
