Gold Coast, Australia- From www.goldcoast.com.au- A LOCAL porn company has been ordered to pay more than $4.5 million in damages to a former US beauty queen for trying to sell porn videos falsely claiming to feature her.
In an embarrassing case of bungled identity, the Loganholme firm, Castle Company Pty Ltd, has been ordered to pay $1.14 million to former Miss West Virginia, Allison Williams, for damaging the 2003 beauty queen’s reputation and invading her privacy.
In addition, the company’s directors and their trust have also been fined, bringing their total bill to $4.56 million.
A jury in the US District Court in Clarksburg this week ordered nine defendants to pay Ms Williams a total of $11.22 million.
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Neither the Castle Company office, nor its place of business in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, could be reached for comment.
Company directors Russell M. Moles, 67, and Gwendoline E. Moles, 64, both listed as living in Hendra and both liable defendants, could also not be contacted.
None of the Australian defendants chose to participate in the trial or have legal representation.
While studying law at West Virginia University in 2004, Ms Williams, now 27, discovered the videos, which show a woman the Internet porn producers falsely claimed to be her having sex in the back of a television news truck.
Ms Williams stumbled across the videos by chance while searching the Internet for a favourable newspaper article about herself to save for her scrapbook, her lawyer Parween Mascari said.
“This had been a very long fight for her so this was a great victory for her,” said Ms Mascari.
Ms Williams has since graduated from law school and now works for a shipping company in Vienna, Virginia, while she prepares to pass the bar, said Ms Mascari.
“I struggled every single day to maintain my law school studies, in the face of incredible stress and anxiety,” Ms Williams said in a prepared statement.
“Still, I refused to allow these pornographers to control my dream to graduate from law school and realise my goals.”
Ms Mascari said this had been a gruelling experience for Ms Williams, whose online presence was usually the first thing she had to address with people she met. The bogus videos also attracted a stalker, said Ms Mascari.