Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro withdrew from public life and was “considering self-harm” after a series of YouTube videos by the comedian Jordan Shanks, a former adviser has told a court.
Monday marked the first day of Barilaro’s trial against tech giant Google over videos posted by Shanks under the nom de plume Friendlyjordies in September and October 2020.
Barilaro sued both Shanks and Google, the owner of YouTube, over the two videos titled bruz and Secret Dictatorship, claiming they were “vile and racist” and brought him into “public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt”.
The claim against Shanks was settled in November last year, with Shanks apologising for any hurt caused, editing parts of two videos and paying legal costs but not damages. However the case against Google continued.
During the hearing Barilaro’s former deputy chief of staff, Jeff McCormack, told the court the then member for Monaro had gone from being an “incredibly social” person with an “infectious energy and enthusiasm” to becoming withdrawn, including attempting to disguise himself while in public.
McCormack told the court that he had been the one to show Barilaro the two videos at the centre of the case, and witnessed him becoming “very upset”.
“Having known and worked so closely with John for the past 10 years you could see he was physically and emotionally very challenged by the videos,” he said.
McCormack told the court Barilaro had received numerous threats following the publication of the videos, including to his family.
“Having been a pollie for a while I think John was used to copping a bit of flack on the internet but I think that some of the comments, in particular the ones around his [family], were the ones he approached me [about] with real concern,” he said.
Sitting in the courtroom, Barilaro wiped away tears as McCormack described the emotional toll he said the videos had on him.
McCormack told the court that he had been with Barilaro on “several occasions” when he had been approached by members of the public making reference to the videos at the centre of the defamation case.
He said the “confrontations” included people “making racist comments accusing him of corruption in front of his family, in front of his friends, in front of his children”.
“It was extremely confronting because they were very aggressive in their nature,” he said.
“I’ve worked in politics for a number of years on some pretty hotly contested campaigns; this was probably the most vile and aggressive confrontations I’ve witnessed.”
McCormack said that after the second video was published in October 2020, Barilaro was considering resigning from parliament, and discussed self-harm.
“John was basically at the physical point where he was considering self-harm and discussing resignation from his role and basically the video had gone beyond the pale,” he said.
“He was very emotional during that conversation.”
Google had initially sought to rely on defences of qualified privilege and honest opinion in publishing the two videos.
But days out from the trial, the tech firm dropped the majority of its defences, bar the new public interest defence, which can only apply to publications made after 1 July, 2021, when the new Defamation Act came into force.
Barilaro’s lawyers say the withdrawal of the other defences means the case is largely a matter of damages. On Monday Barilaro’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, told the court the videos led to him being “driven out of public office”.
“The hate messages he received, people approaching him on the street, the harassment he felt and the hurt that caused him was instrumental in his decision to leave politics in October last year,” she said.
Chrysanthou told the court the former deputy premier would seek aggravated damages “at the top of the range” against Google for what she described as its “extreme” conduct in publishing “offensive material” by Shanks. This included “terrible allegations” made against his lawyers by Shanks following the settlement that were “plainly absurd”, she said.
“The only rational conclusion to be drawn is a motive on behalf of Google to waste my client’s time and money, or otherwise put pressure on him to settle the case, because he as an individual is confronted with a gargantuan company,” she said.
“My client should have had a judgement against Google seven months ago [but its actions] caused my client to expend hundreds of thousands of dollars in this case as an individual against a company worth billions and billions.”
Monday’s hearing also saw character witnesses for Barilaro, including the Canberra Raiders NRL coach Ricky Stuart.
Stuart told the court he had known Barilaro for about 20 years, describing him as a “caring person” who was “very generous in his time”.
“I know John can find himself talking to the prime minister [and being] at ease and very comfortable and or be at a pub in Queanbeyan making people around him feel very comfortable,” he said.
“I’ve seen this first hand. I talk about John caring for people, this is where I’ve seen it first hand.”
The trial continues.
