A former male colleague of ex-GB News presenter Dan Wootton said he was catfished by him and tricked into sending explicit sexual content, the High Court has heard.
On Tuesday (8 April) the court heard that in 2010 Wootton allegedly pretended to be a woman by using the name ‘Maria Joseph’ and exchanged flirty and sexual messages with the claimant who brought the case – who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The claimant’s barrister Justin Levinson told the court that Wootton, pretending to be ‘Maria Joseph’, sent the claimant images naked images of a woman as well as a video of a couple having sex.
As a result, the claimant believed himself to be talking to the woman in the images and sought to pursue a sexual relationship with her, sending nude images and a video of him performing a sex act on himself.
Wootton “tricked the claimant into providing these images” Levinson told the court.
The claimant stated that he subsequently became aware that he was not speaking to a woman but instead Dan Wootton and has now brought a civil case against him for “damages for personal injuries and losses consequent on the defendant’s intentional infliction of harm, misuse of confidential information, infringement of privacy and deceit”.
The personal injuries in the case include “psychiatric injury”.
Judge Roger Eastman, as quoted by The Independent, said: “The claim relates to what is colloquially referred to as a catfishing exercise whereby a person alleged to be the defendant (Mr Wootton) impersonated a fictitious person and induced the claimant into engaging in exchanges with that person of a sexualised nature.
“It transpired that the person was, as I say, completely fictitious and the claimant alleges that as a result of that activity he has suffered psychiatric damage.”
Dan Wootton’s barrister Samuel Rowe said his client was not given sufficient notice to challenge the court order granting the claimant anonymity, which was rejected by the judge who said there is “clear evidence of potential adverse and serious adverse effect” if the claimant’s identity is revealed.
Rowe added the Metropolitan Police and Police Scotland had previously investigated allegations of catfishing against Wootton but closed the cases without charge.
The claimant’s barrister Justin Levinson, however, said as far as he knew those investigations were not related to the claimant’s case but were similar allegations involving different people.
Wootton has previously claimed to have been the “victim of a politically-motivated witch hunt through the left-wing and social media”. The former presenter said he believed the accusations made against him were “lies designed to destroy [his] career”.
The case continues.
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