Website chief made 'false and scurrilous' claims from fake email address

A Coleraine man who sent emails to news outlets making 'false and scurrilous' allegations about a former co-worker has come within a 'hair's breadth' of going to prison, a court has heard.

Geoffrey Brian Moffett, of Redwood Park, Coleraine, appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court last week and entered guilty pleas to two charges of improper use of public communications.

The injured party was present in court as 34-year-old Moffett appeared in the dock in relation to the charges, which dated back to offences committed between October 9 and October 12 2020.

The court heard how the injured party's wife was made aware of an email sent to a number of news outlets about her husband, who was seriously ill in hospital at the time.

The email made claims of a 'scurrilous and totally unfounded' nature about her husband.

Police seized a copy of the email, which had been sent from a Gmail address bearing a woman's name and made an application to trace the origins of the email.

After taking statements from the news outlets to which the email was sent, they discovered the original had been sent on October 10 2020, with a reply received on October 11.

The defendant, who runs the Causeway Coast Community website and social media networks, had responded to the reply from the news outlet which asked questions relating to the original email.

The internet provider address was traced to the defendant, and Moffett was interviewed about the offending on February 4 2021.

During interview, he stated that he had used the email address, and told police he sometimes used fake email addresses in his line of IT work.

Geoffrey Brian Moffett.

He explained he knew the injured party as they had worked together in the past, but had 'had issues' and were no longer working together.

When asked if he had sent the email on October 10, he said he had done so 'accidentally' and that he had meant to send it to a friend.

He said he did not compose the original email and could not say who had sent to him. Police said they did not believe his account as the news outlets had received two replies from the defendant.

Moffett could not explain how the replies had occurred, telling police he had received an email from an unknown source and accidentally sent it to the news outlets.

Defence for Moffett said the defendant had made it clear he had sent the email accidentally and had not sent it to the injured party.

Judge King indicated that the 'to and fro' of emails belied Moffett's suggestion that he had sent the email in error.

Defence conceded that Moffett had been the 'author of his own downfall', but drew the judge's attention to references showing 'how much Mr Moffett does in his community'.

He told the court he spreads police pleas for information regularly and would be up to 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning at weekends to promote community material.

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Judge King said anyone who is involved in social media had to be aware of the potential 'devastating' impact it can have on those negatively affected by it.

He drew the defendant's attention to cases highlighted in the media of younger people who suffer cyber bullying and go on to self-harm.

“In this day and age, there is nobody – especially with your business background – who can claim ignorance of the damage and danger of online activity,” he told Moffett.

“There is always the danger of the recipient of the false, scurrilous and outrageous allegations being the subject of adverse community attention.”

Judge King said the defendant had placed the injured party's reputation, family life and physical safety in danger with his 'completely obnoxious' allegations.

He said the potential for harm to a completely innocent member of the community meant that the custody threshold had been crossed.

Stressing that Moffett's guilty plea was an acknowledgement that the allegations he made were 'completely false', he sentenced the defendant to a period of four month's imprisonment, suspended for a period of three years.

A restraining order was also imposed on Moffett, prohibiting him from contacting, or encouraging others to contact the injured party for three years.

“I am so appalled at the potential damage you could have caused, you came within a hair's breadth of prison today,” Judge King told the defendant.

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The defendant had a fine imposed for the offence.