Sheriff dismisses defamation case brought by Carbisdale Castle owner Samantha Kane

A sheriff has dismissed a defamation case brought by Samantha Kane, owner of Carbisdale Castle, Culrain, against a Sutherland resident.

Sheriff Neil Wilson found the case “incompetent” in its present form and said he considered it an “abuse of court process”.

Ms Kane, a barrister, brought the case against Kerry Hawthorne under the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021.

The case was heard by Sheriff Wilson at a virtual sitting of Tain Civil Court last Thursday, May 22.

The court heard that the case centred on complaints made by Ms Hawthorne to the Ethical Standards Commissioner for Scotland and to Police Scotland.

The complaints were specifically about North, West and Central Sutherland councillor Michael Baird but included a reference to Ms Kane.

The exact nature of the reference was not made clear to the court, but at one point Ms Kane said to the sheriff: “You would not like me writing to someone saying the sheriff recommended a dodgy deal.”

She claimed the statement was untrue and malicious and had been made with the intention of “lowering her reputation”.

“The defender (Ms Hawthorne) has caused me serious damage and impacted my reputation,” she said. “In the interests of justice I demanded an apology; that was not forthcoming.”

Sheriff Wilson continually pressed Ms Kane on how the complaints constituted a “publication” under the Act.

She responded: “This is a publication because it is actually a written statement on a paper sent to a third party. The Standards Commission reported the statement to Highland Council officials and councillors.

“There is also the threat to have a public hearing, and this could be repeated in public. The issue here is this is not an innocent statement.”

She added: “I have learnt since I moved to the Highlands that I have to protect my reputation because once a member of the community has heard about it, it goes like wildfire.”

Ms Kane added that it would be “extremely unfair to be shut out of access to justice”.

However, Sheriff Wilson was not convinced, saying: “I still do not think you have answered my question. Your position is that writing a letter constitutes a publication.”

He indicated that he did not need to hear from Ms Hawthorne, saying that the court had to “know its limitations” and was “not in the business of stopping gossip”.

Dismissing the case, he said he was making no ruling on the truth or otherwise of the statement but was unconvinced by the case and saw “no merit whatsoever in this action”.

He said: “I regard this case as an abuse of the court process to pursue a private vendetta and an ill-advised attempt to stop gossip.”