ATLANTIS STATEMENT
On 8 September 2021 Atlantis Radio UK Limited instituted High Court proceedings against Radio Caroline Presenter Raymond Copeland claiming damages for libel and malicious falsehood limited to the sum of £50,000.
Atlantis Radio had no desire to become embroiled in an expensive and protracted High Court trial and accordingly, on 1 December 2021 offered to settle the proceedings on the basis that Mr Copeland made a nominal payment of £1,000 damages together with Atlantis Radio’s legal costs.
We are pleased to now be in a position to announce that following a Court hearing which took place on Wednesday 18 May 2022 which dealt with the basis upon which Mr Copeland would pay Atlantis Radio’s costs, the High Court proceedings have now, subject to the payment of those costs, been brought to an end.
We believe that this sends out a strong message that persons cannot make libellous accusations using fake names and then hope to hide behind anonymous Twitter accounts with impunity.
The sad thing about this whole episode is that Mr Copeland had the opportunity last August to come clean before the proceedings were issued and admit that he was the person behind the defamatory email that was sent to one of our advertisers using the name of a Mr Nick Albarn who falsely claimed that he was an investigation reporter.
A letter from our lawyers was also sent in August 2021 to Malcolm Smith (who goes also by the name of Peter Moore), the owner of Radio Caroline, which drew to his attention the contents of the email which we believed had been sent by Mr Copeland. However, notwithstanding this, Mr Copeland has continued to this day as a Presenter on Radio Caroline despite their management being fully aware of the libel proceedings that Atlantis Radio had instituted against him.
The Court has now ordered that Mr Copeland pay Atlantis Radio’s costs up until 8 March 2022 and we believe that the estimate for the legal costs for both sides will end up being in the region of £40,000 to £50,000. This is obviously a disappointing outcome in respect of a matter that we believe could have easily have been settled for a few thousand pounds and a legal undertaking if the Defendant had come clean last August.
Following on from the outcome of yesterday’s hearing, Atlantis Radio would like to make clear that Atlantis Radio will continue to enforce its legal remedies should there be any repetition of the serious allegations made by Mr Copeland by him or any other Radio Caroline presenters or employees.
Finally, we would like to thank Ofcom who have been kept in the loop on all matters over the last 9 months and have been very supportive in our actions, this entire episode has been an unneeded nightmare for us that we could have well done without.
