A Federal Court judge has branded a defamation case brought by two doctors from the notorious Chelmsford psychiatric hospital in Sydney a bid to "rewrite history" and rejected their claims against a journalist and publisher.
It marks the first time a journalist has successfully used qualified privilege in an Australian defamation case under laws that started in 2006.Justice Jagot said Dr Gill and Mr Herron sought to use the case as a "vehicle" to show the royal commission did them a serious injustice but it should have been "obvious" to them that DST "was a dangerous experimental treatment for which there was no medical indication for any patient subjected to it at Chelmsford".
Cannane said he was "shocked" to receive a legal letter over a chapter in the book, which was "based straight out of the royal commission findings". "I think of the millions of dollars that it cost, and I think of the poor victims of Chelmsford. Why couldn't that money have just gone to them in compensation?" he said."These doctors tried to portray themselves as victims in this case and they weren't victims. The true victims were the Chelmsford patients."
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