A MORNINGTON dance teacher who recently lost an appeal against his conviction for indecently assaulting a 17-year-old girl is suing a volunteer-run, Mornington Peninsula-based community Facebook page, claiming it defamed him.
In response, the admins of “Mornington Peninsula Noticeboard Vic”, which has over 112,000 followers, have launched a “Go Fund Me” campaign to raise money to cover their legal fees.
The legal action stems from a post made onto the page in November 2024, and comments on that post, pertaining to the conviction of Jon “Jonny” Garnett, the owner of Mornington Dance Studio, for indecent assault.
The material posted included a link to a NewsCorp article that used particular language in referring to Garnett that he alleged was defamatory. The News has intentionally not published the specific language used.
Court documents, seen by The News, indicate the dance teacher took legal action over two NewsCorp articles, and they were taken down in April 2025 “following a confidential settlement between the parties”.
Although the original articles were taken down, it was not before one was posted onto the “Mornington Peninsula Noticeboard Vic” Facebook page. It is that republication that is the subject of the defamation action against the Facebook page.
Garnett was found guilty in April 2024 of indecently assaulting the 17-year-old girl but was acquitted on a charge of raping her.
The court found the child was his student at Mornington Dance Studio when, in August 2012, the then 33-year-old took her to his apartment after class for a private dance lesson to prepare for an upcoming dance competition.
The court found he gave the child alcohol before kissing the child on the cheek, neck and breasts. The prosecution also contended, based on the child’s claim, that Garnett took her to his bedroom and raped her. The jury found that the latter claim could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
On the charge of indecent assault, the court imposed a community corrections order for a period of 14 months with a condition that Garnett perform 240 hours of unpaid community work, and recorded a conviction.
Garnett appealed the conviction based on the belief of legal inconsistency, with Garnett’s counsel arguing that “the guilty verdict returned on charge 1 [indecent assault] was illogical and unreasonable having regard to the not guilty verdict on charge 3 [rape]”. The court rejected the argument and refused Garnett’s leave to appeal.
Garnett has now initiated proceedings against the Facebook page in the County Court. The News believes five defendants have been named in the action: the original poster of the allgedly defamatory material onto the page, and the four admins of the page at the time it was posted.
The News understands the allegedly defamatory material was posted on the Facebook page without the page admins’ knowledge and was removed at a later stage.
Defamation law in Victoria is governed by the Defamation Act 2005 (Vic) which aims to provide effective and fair remedies for persons whose reputations are harmed by the publication of defamatory matter while not placing unreasonable limits on freedom of expression and on the publication and discussion of matters of public interest and importance.
The Defamation Act contains mechanisms to resolve the dispute before the matter gets to court, including the removal of the allegedly defamatory material and the making of amends.
The Act contains various defences against defamation proceedings including the defence of justification on the grounds the matter alleged to be defamatory substantially true (s 25 of Defamation Act), or contextually true (s 26 of Defamation Act).
The Act also contains a defence when the published information is deemed to be in the public interest (s 29A of Defamation Act).
The Act also contains a newly-added defence for the protection of “digital intermediaries” (s 31A of Defamation Act) defined as “a person, other than an author, originator or poster of the matter, who provides or administers the online service by means of which the matter is published”.
Defamation is usually very costly for all parties involved. Legal costs can run into the hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars. The maximum damages amount that may be awarded for non-economic loss is currently $500,000 with that amount only awarded in serious case.
The court is also able to award aggravated damages if an award of aggravated damages if warranted in the circumstances.
Past defamation cases, often thrashed out in the public eye, tend to garner high-level media coverage due to their often-salacious nature.
The current action could have interesting consequences for social media community pages; run by administrators on a voluntary basis and as a community services, whose administrators become responsible for allegedly defamatory content published to their platforms by a third party.
The News believes mediation between the parties is scheduled for 23 July.
