Overview

• Sebastian Bond, who operated Tattle Life under the pseudonym ‘Helen McDougal’ while cultivating a vegan influencer identity, was revealed as the site’s founder
• The High Court in Northern Ireland ordered him to pay £300,000 in defamation damages and cover £1.8 million in legal and compliance costs to Neil and Donna Sands
• The judgment included an injunction barring the forum from publishing further posts about the Sands after Justice McAlinden characterised the operation as exploiting people’s misery for profit
• Tattle Life attracts around 12 million visitors each month and earns an estimated £278,700 every six months in Google AdSense revenue
• Celebrities including Katie Price and Stacey Solomon have publicly backed the Sands and urged stronger measures against anonymous online abuse