The notorious doctor sued by the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland for false rumors about an extramarital affair told a court he was suffering from “pretty serious mental health problems”.
Lawyers for Arlene foster filed a libel suit against Dr Christian Jessen after tweeting unsubstantiated allegations the married mother of three had a relationship with a close protection officer.
Dr Jessen, who presents the Embarrassing Bodies program, said he hadn’t read or watched the news for 12 months because he suffered from “really pretty serious mental health issues” and didn’t know anything of the court hearing.
Ms Foster was involved in power-sharing talks at the time of the tweets
The judge, Justice McAliden, disputed this on the basis that Dr Jessen tweeted articles from the Sunday Times and the BBC and questioned the government’s COVID measures.
In cross-examination, he told the court he “honestly believed the rumors were true” because there were “a lot of comments online”.
He continued: “In view of the scale of the rumors and in view of the DUPThe person’s position on issues like marriage equality and abortion, I firmly believed that if there was any possibility that this was true, this hypocrisy should be pointed out and addressed. “
Last week, the Prime Minister told the same court that the false rumors, which began circulating online at Christmas 2019, were “very painful” and “humiliating”.
She said she was “very upset” to have to tell her husband and their children that “the relationship that was most important to me has been destroyed and put into the public domain in this way.”
Ms Foster, who was engaged in efforts to restore power-sharing when the unsubstantiated allegations went viral, described it as “an attack on me personally and my marriage, aimed at destabilizing me at a very critical time.”
Dr. Jessen said he had …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-23 17:38:00
