A blogger who has taken Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale to courtroom stays “deeply distressed” by her claim that he sent a “homophobic” tweet, a court has heard.
His attorney said it was both “untrue and unfair” to explain Wings Over Scotland blogger Stuart Campbell as a homophobe.
But Ms. Dugdale’s QC said the seasoned-independence blogger changed into glad to fireplace “poisoned arrows at all of us he chooses”.
He stated Mr. Campbell need to, therefore “no longer whinge while an arrow is fired returned”.
And he introduced that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Secretary David Mundell, Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie and Stonewall Scotland director Colin Macfarlane have been amongst the ones to have agreed with Ms. Dugdale’s view that Mr. Campbell’s tweet becomes homophobic.
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The lawyer additionally said there has been a “simple irony” in Mr. Campbell suing a person else for defamation, given the caustic nature of his blog and tweets.
The exchanges got here as both aspects summed up their positions on the 1/3 and final day of the civil proof at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Nigel Ross, who has been hearing the case, stated he was hoping to deliver his ruling inside the next four weeks.
Mr. Campbell is suing former Scottish Labour chief Ms. Dugdale for defamation over a column she wrote within the Daily Record on March 2017 which referenced his “homophobic tweets” and accused him of spouting “hatred and homophobia closer to others” from his Twitter account.
The tweet on the center of the action changed into published through Mr. Campbell in the course of the Conservative Party convention and stated that Conservative MSP Oliver Mundell “is the kind of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner.”
Mr. Campbell, from Bath in Somerset, has denied that it become a homophobic connection with David Mundell being homosexual and has insisted it become “satirical grievance” of Oliver Mundell’s public talking competencies.
The blogger’s QC, Craig Sandison, opened via telling the court that Mr. Campbell “isn’t always a homophobe”, and turned into in search of to guard his popularity as someone who has constantly supported the same remedy of homosexual people.
He said being accused of homophobia could position a “stain” on a person’s individual and decrease them in society’s eyes.
Mr. Sandison informed the court that his client “remains deeply distressed through that allegation and by means of the insistence by the defender on its truth”.
He mentioned that Mr. Campbell, who’s in search of £25,000 in damages, “isn’t a well-mannered man, he does not restrain himself in putting forth his views. He isn’t circumspect.”
But he argued: “None of these are factors of his individual he’s searching for to protect with the aid of this movement.
“What he is in search of to guard is his wonderful popularity as someone who has continuously supported the same remedy of homosexual human beings and indeed humans usually.
“That’s why he’s so disenchanted because this attack on him is so unfaithful, so unfair.”
Mr. Sandison stated that if all of us changed into “abused” by the tweet it became Oliver Mundell, based on his public talking.
He stated: “That announcement approximately Oliver Mundell wasn’t primarily based on his sexuality, it is not anything to do together with his sexuality. Was David Mundell then abused due to his sexuality? I say actually no longer.”
He added that Ms. Dugdale’s comment changed into “not pretty made” and claimed it turned into prompted in component via her “sick feeling” toward the blogger because of articles he had written about her.
On Tuesday, Ms. Dugdale informed the courtroom that she had a responsibility as a homosexual flesh-presser to “call out” homophobia and that it remained her “honest view” that the tweet became homophobic.
‘Extremely rude’
Her lawyer, Roddy Dunlop QC, defined the Lothian MSP as “entirely credible and reliable” and said the true query inside the case became whether or not someone becomes entitled to view the tweet as homophobic.
He said: “The pursuer (Mr. Campbell) quite sincerely does now not just like the defender. He has been extremely impolite approximately her on multiple events and on the only event she calls him out, he sues her.
“When he publicly tweets about public figures, he’s exposing himself to public comment and he has to those that. There is an undeniable irony within the pursuer, a master of calumny, suing for defamation on this unique context.
“This is someone who has entered the political arena of his own volition, armed with a quiver of poisoned arrows which he will fireplace at everybody he chooses. He must no longer bitch while an arrow is fired lower back.”
