Miranda Devine Has To Pay $200,000 To Bullying Victim Quaden Bayles
The Bayles family have reached a settlement with the News Corp columnist after she suggested the nine-year-old lied about being bullied
In a bit of sweet, sweet justice, the family of Quaden Bayles will reportedly receive almost $200,000 after reaching a settlement in their defamation case against News Corp columnist Miranda Devine.
According to The Guardian, the federal court will be told of the settlement on Friday, with Devine also having to cover the family’s legal costs.
The news comes days after the Daily Telegraph columnist apologised to the family on Twitter.
In February this year I posted some comments on my personal Twitter account about Quaden Bayles and his mother Yarraka. I now know those comments were hurtful and untrue. I sincerely apologise to the Bayles for those comments.
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) September 19, 2020
Quaden Bayles went viral last year after his mother posted a heartbreaking video of him crying and expressing suicidal thoughts following extensive bullying.
Australians rallied around him in support at the time — but because the bar is never too low for some people, he also became a target of right-wing trolls who accused the nine-year-old kid with dwarfism of lying to scam people into giving him money.
His family launched their defamation case against Devine in August, months after the high-profile columnist retweeted one of these claims.
“That’s really rotten if this was a scam. Hurts genuine bullying victims”,” she wrote at the time.
The settlement was reached after a federal court judge agreed Devine had a case to answer.
While the terms of the settlement will not be made public, according to The Guardian Quaden and his mother Yarraka Bayles will each receive almost $100,000, with Quaden’s money to be held in trust until he is 18.
It’s unclear whether Devine or News Corp will pay the damages and costs.