Lost case leaves anti-vax woman broke

Lost case leaves anti-vax woman broke

Meryl Dorey. Picture: Glenn Barnes
Source: News Limited



THE figurehead of the controversial anti-vaccination lobby has made a stunning plea for cash after losing a court battle to silence her critics.


Meryl Dorey has been ordered to pay $11,000 in costs to cover the legal fees of Stop the Australian Vaccination Network campaigner Dan Buzzard after he appealed against an apprehended violence order she took out against him last year.

In a blog post appealing to the public to give her cash to pay the bill, Ms Dorey says she has “virtually no income nor do I have any way to raise these funds”.

She then goes on to accuse the court of bias.

Ms Dorey sought her AVO because she was upset about the publication of her home address on Twitter.

In her new fundraising campaign she provides her bank account details on the internet so she can receive the cash.

It comes as the anti-immunisation campaigner has also been accused of misrepresenting the views of politicians in a bid to raise funds for her organisation.

Greens health spokesman and doctor Senator Richard Di Natale has condemned a blog post by Dorey in which she claims he supports making vaccination compulsory and then appeals for donations.

The Senator has written to complain and told News Corporation “I take issue with the fact she has misrepresented my position and used to try and make money from the lie to fill the coffers of the AVN,” he says.

“Our policy is that vaccination is one of the most effective public health measures ever introduced, but in the end people have a choice whether to vaccinate their children but that choice should be based on accurate information,” Senator Di Natale says.

Ms Dorey declined an opportunity to comment on her loss in court yesterday.

She has until September 21 to pay her legal bill.

The saga began in September 2012 when Ms Dorey claimed SAVN campaigner Dan Buzzard had been harassing her via email for three years and had published her postal address on Twitter and “asked people to send me violent pornographic images”.

Mr Buzzard on his blog site “Dan’s Journal of Skepticism” says AVN supporters have been trying to silence its critics for years by harassing grieving families, impersonating critics websites, abusing Facebook’s report feature to get critics banned and taking out apprehended violence orders.

Mr Buzzard said in an interview Ms Dorey had been complaining for three years on the internet about getting pornographic material and “I joked on Twitter that this would be the address to send it to” and supplied her postal address.

“I never sent any pornographic material,” he said.

Mr Buzzard says in retrospect he regretted this is what appeared to give the anti-vaccination campaigner the ammunition she needed to launch an AVO.

The information technology student said it cost him over $11,000 to defend himself and he says he had to borrow money from friends for the legal action.

SAVN campaigner Ken McLeod says this court case is the latest in a long line of legal actions taken by the AVN against its critics.

“We’re compiling a list of failed court actions with a view to taking proceedings in the Supreme Court,” he said.

The AVN claims vaccines cause autism, brain damage and cancer and its current president warns parents not to get immunisation advice from their doctors.

The Office of Fair Trading has been trying to get the AVN to change its name because it is concerned members of the public may think its website contains unbiased vaccination information when in fact if campaigns against immunisation.

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