News Corp Isn’t Defending Miranda Devine In Defamation Case Against Quaden Bayles

A Federal Court has ruled that Quaden Bayles, an Indigenous child with dwarfism, has an arguable case that he was defamed by News Corp columnist Miranda Devine. And what’s more, News Corp is declining to defend her in the matter.

Devine is currently being sued by Quaden Bayles and his mother over comments made on Twitter, where she gave airtime to a rumour that the nine-year-old was scamming people.

Quaden has achondroplasia dwarfism and has been a victim of relentless bullying. In February this came to a head when he was picked up from school in tears, saying he wanted to die.

His mother Yarraka Bayles captured the moment on video and posted the emotional clip to Facebook to try and raise awareness about the impacts of bullying.

It led to a huge outpouring of support for Quaden (and money — a fundraiser to send him to Disneyland raised more than $400,000 in less than a week). But it also led to a bizarre rumour that he was actually a teenage actor trying to scam people.

Devine retweeted one of those claims, while adding, “That’s really rotten if this was a scam. Hurts genuine bullying victims”. She also tweeted an insinuation that his mother was “coaching” him to say things, and agreed with another comment which which said that would be “child abuse”.

Quaden and his mother have since received death threats due to the “false and malicious internet conspiracy”, a lawyer for the family said. Quaden is reportedly in the Paediatric Palliative Care Unit at Queensland Children’s Hospital after being diagnosed with critical respiratory failure.

What Did The Court Decide?

A Federal Court judge has approved moves to serve court documents on Devine, who is currently on secondment for News Corp in New York.

However, since Devine has not acknowledged she has been served the documents by email, lawyers will have to start the long, drawn-out process of having the papers physically handed to her (which could take months).

While Devine formerly wrote for News Corp’s Daily Telegraph, they are refusing to accept the documents on her behalf.

The News Corp subsidiary Nationwide News is also named as a defendant in the case, which alleges they’re responsible for the tweets as her employer. However, a lawyer acting for Nationwide News (and not for Devine) told the court their position was that the tweets were a private private.

In a judgement yesterday, Justice Anna Katzmann said she would reconsider the need to serve Devine personally if further evidence was provided by the Bayles family, including medical evidence.

Devine is yet to comment on the case.