Colin Craig case: Jordan Williams awarded largest defamation payout in New Zealand history
Colin Craig has today been ordered to pay the country's highest ever defamation award.
The jurors on Friday decided Mr Craig should pay Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams $1,050,000 in compensation and $220,000 in punitive damages.
The jury awarded $400,000 in damages for one part of the defamation claim, plus $90,000 in additional punitive damages.
The figure also includes $650,000 in damages for the second part of the defamation claim, and another $130,000 in punitive damages, Fairfax reports.
It is a record payout for punitive damages in New Zealand.
Before today, the largest defamation award in New Zealand history was in the Michael Stiassny v Vince Siemer case.
Auckland businessman Siemer was ordered to pay Stiassny $825,000 in damages after his appeal failed in 2011.
Colin Craig v Jordan Williams
A jury at the High Court at Auckland has found Mr Craig defamed Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams at a press conference and in a pamphlet released after Mr Craig stepped down as party leader in 2015.
Immediately after the decision was read, Mr Craig's lawyers asked the judge to delay passing down judgement, saying the jury had got it wrong. They have asked for 14 days to appeal.
During the trial, Mr Williams told the court he went to Conservative Party officials in 2015 after Mr Craig's press secretary, Rachel MacGregor - who quit suddenly two days before the 2014 election - confided in him about allegedly being sexual harassed by Mr Craig, including touching, comments, and romantic letters and poems.
Mr Craig resigned in June, 2015 and said Mr Williams was part of a plot to oust him as leader, accused him of spreading lies and leaking to bloggers and also threatened to sue Mr Williams - although he never did.
He sent the 12-page pamphlet "Dirty Politics and Hidden Agendas" to 1.6 million homes to try to defend his reputation, his lawyers said.
It took the jurors nearly 10 hours of deliberation to reach their verdict in the case, which contained 1000 pages of transcripts.
As the verdict was read, Mr Williams looked almost in tears, while Mr Craig showed no remorse.
The 11 jurors - one was discharged early - had to work out whether Mr Williams' reputation had been harmed, whether Mr Craig had told the truth, held an honest opinion, or if he was just defending himself in a reasonable way.
RELATED STORIES:
Colin Craig loses defamation case, ordered to pay $1.27m
Colin Craig's wife takes the stand
During the trial, Ms MacGregor told the court she quit after Mr Craig told her he had "slept well the night before because he had imagined he was lying on my legs".
She called him "dodgy" among a string of other insults, saying he harassed her over a long period of time and refused to pay her for months.
Poems and letters allegedly written by Mr Craig to Ms MacGregor were read to the court by Mr Williams, containing lines such as saying she looked "unbelievably good in your new dress" and her lips were "amazing to kiss".
Mr Williams' lawyer Peter McKnight said businessman Mr Craig had sued a string of people and Mr Williams was just someone who stood up to him.
Mr Craig sat in the public gallery the bulk of the trial.
During his evidence, he said his relationship with Ms MacGregor was consensual and she had since changed her story.
