A judge has said he is "dumbfounded" by the behaviour of Google in John Barilaro's defamation case and is considering referring the technology giant for contempt of court charges.
Former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro is suing Google for refusing to take down online videos that, he claimed, were "vulgar" and "offensive", despite multiple complaints to the tech giant from his legal team.
The videos were published by popular YouTube commentator and comedian, Jordan Shanks, known online as FriendlyJordies.
Mr Shanks settled a separate defamation action brought by Mr Barilaro last year after apologising for any offence caused and agreeing to edit some of his content.
Mr Barilaro claimed the videos portrayed him as a "corrupt con man" who made a fortune from dodgy dealings and included "racial slurs" that referenced the former MP's Italian heritage.
In the final day of the defamation hearing in the Federal Court, Justice Steven Rares launched a scathing attack on Google for sitting back while Mr Shanks posted video after video taunting Mr Barilaro.
"Its just extraordinary [that] Google is behaving in this way. I'm just completely dumbfounded by this," he said.
The judge said he was particularly concerned that Google had not removed a video posted last year that accused Mr Barilaro's legal team of incompetence and dishonesty.
"It looks like a very serious, likely finding of contempt by a publication, [designed] to intimidate [lawyers] from acting and therefore stopping Mr Barilaro's access to justice," Justice Rares said.
"Shanks was quite determined to frustrate the course of justice … to get to the point that his lawyers wouldn't want to appear for him.
"This is something I regard as something incredibly serious."
In court, Google's lawyer, James Hmelnitsky, conceded that the videos had caused significant harm to Mr Barilaro, who resigned from politics last year.
The former Monaro MP said the videos "broke him", caused him to consider self-harm and led to many threatening confrontations in public with FriendlyJordies fans.
Mr Barilaro appeared distressed on a number of occasions during the defamation hearing.
As he listened to the final day of evidence, Mr Barilaro at one point became upset and temporarily excused himself from the courtroom.
His lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, argued her client deserved damages of the highest order because his case was possibly the most extreme example of damage to reputation.
She submitted that Google's decision to rely on "rubbish" defences for seven months, only to withdraw them without explanation this week, only served to aggravate the damage done.
Mr Hmelnitsky indicated that he, too, thought the defences were baseless, which gave rise to some amusement in the courtroom.
Mr Hmelnitsky then urged Justice Rares not to take any possible contempt into consideration when it came to damages.
He argued that Google was only liable for harm for the period after Mr Barilaro complained and not from the time the videos were uploaded.
"But your client facilitated all that because they kept it up on the internet … [and] you're trying to tell me to moderate the sum?" Justice Rares said.
During the hearing, the judge has repeatedly criticised the multinational company for failing to send any representatives to court.
Today, Justice Rares accused Google of wasting the court's time and Mr Barilaro's money.
"There's a duty under the Federal Court to cooperate as quickly and efficiently, to get to the real issues and not waste the court's time," he said.
"If this was uncontested this could have been heard last year."
The hearing is now adjourned while Justice Rares considers his judgement.
