Woman who destroyed ex-boyfriend’s reputation online must pay to restore it, judge rules

The posts began showing up on Instagram and other online sites in August 2016, accusing a British Columbia man of being an alcoholic cheater with sexually-transmitted diseases, a Canadian court ruling says.

By the time the “relentless” online smear campaign ended in August 2017, at least 85 posts targeting the man had been made under various names and identities, the court ruled.

Now Noelle Halcrow of Vancouver must pay $200,000 in damages and repay $30,000 the man spent on online reputation-cleaning services, Justice Elliot Myers ruled.

Halcrow had a one-month relationship with the man in 2015 and a six-month one that ended just before the posts to Instagram, gossip sites and STD registries began, the court ruling says.

She’s a self-described style blogger and Instagram “influencer” with more than 17,000 followers, CTV reported.

Alan McConchie, a Vancouver libel lawyer who represented the victim, said he was shocked by the extent and severity of the attacks, the CBC reported.

Halcrow, who did not testify, blamed the posts on her friends and others, but a computer expert traced online registrations for the various identities posting the smears to her Internet address, according to the court ruling.

Texts to the man from Halcrow about taking down some of the posts and threatening to repost them also were entered into evidence, the ruling says.

The man, who works in the mining and investment industry, testified the online attacks gave him great anxiety, especially references to his ex-wife and daughter, the ruling says.

Myers ruled Halcrow must pay the man $175,000 in general damages and $25,000 in aggravated damages. She also must repay $29,870 for reputation specialists he’d hired to clear his name. All the amounts are in Canadian dollars.

“The courts have recognized that the internet can be used as an exceedingly effective tool to harm reputations,” Myers wrote in his ruling, issued in September. “This is one such case.”

The judge ordered Halcrow not to republish any of the posts.

The man declined comment, saying he wanted to put it behind him, and Halcrow did not respond to requests for comment, the CBC reported.

“What scares me about the world of influencers is a lot of them are running actually quite large businesses with zero business savvy and they’re going out and making some pretty bold claims without a lot of knowledge,” said Katie Dunsworth-Reiach, co-founder of Talk Shop Media, CTV reported.

This story was originally published January 5, 2020 at 9:24 AM with the headline "Woman who destroyed ex-boyfriend’s reputation online must pay to restore it, judge rules."