HUNTER Paralympian Stuart Jones is taking defamation action against his former domestic partner over public Facebook comments that labelled him a cheat and a liar, arguing the imputations of the posts were seriously harmful.
The matter in the district court is expected to resume later this month, after it was left part-heard in March when new evidence came to light that prompted both sides to agree to an adjournment.
According to the partial judgement of Judge Judith Gibson, defendant Letitia Jackson published the first comment on a NSW Institute of Sport Facebook post in November, 2021, which had announced Mr Jones as the recipient of the Spirit of Sport Award.
In the post, Ms Jackson allegedly accused Mr Jones of cheating and lying about the nature of his disability.
The second comment in question, published on a Newcastle Live Facebook post promoting an interview with Mr Jones in February, 2022, allegedly accused him of being a "lying cheating narcissist".
According to court documents, Mr Jones and Ms Jackson were domestic partners until 2001 and have one son together.
The court documents say Mr Jones did not have anything to do with Ms Jackson or his son following Family Court action in 2014 - though he and his son had some phone contact just before the allegedly defamatory comments were posted online.
Mr Jones suffered T2 spinal damage in a crash while riding his bike to work in 2014 and began competing in paracycling events.
He came second in his category in the 2019 World Championships and competed in the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021.
Proceedings were adjourned part-heard on March 30 after it came to light that a reporter working for ABC programme Four Corners had approached Mr Jones several times about Paralympic classifications after his affidavit had been sworn.
The matter will resume on May 25.
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