Advise on possible low-scale libel
Discussion
Hi all
In my professional capacity, I am a member of a trade association for my line of work, which is primarily domestic cleaning. Almost all of the trade association activity is via a private Facebook page, run and administered by the directors of the association. Approx 300 paid members, across the UK.
An ex-member of the group (he's been out of the group and association for about 1-2 months now, as I understand it) has been found to be a convicted paedophile. I discovered this last night, completely by random chance. I was in contact with him 8 months ago as he offers training in a sub-set of my work, something I want to get into. I had long since lost his contact details so googled his name. Top two articles were news articles about him and his crimes. I did some light internet sleuthing, and was 95% confident it was him.
I messaged 2 other people (young adult women, if it makes any difference) who I know were either about to, or already were in contact with him about training, wishing to alert them to the possibility of my findings being true. I did nothing else beyond that.
One of those two people contacted the trade association and subsequently a significant number of other members have had information passed on, and it has rather spread like wildfire. When I wake up this morning, I have got various snotty messages from one of the directors, essentially accusing me of knowing about this chap and deliberately deciding to sit on the info.
I have screenshots of all the messages, now a private apology from the person making the accusations acknowledging they were way out of line. That would normally be the end of it and I would let it lie there.
However, there is various chatter on the group, from various different people which strongly suggests that conversations have been had privately, expressing the fact that I knew and didn't say anything. I have not been named, and a layperson and 80-90% of the group would not be able to tie it to me, but anyone that had been spoken to privately would put two and two together, and I feel pretty bloody annoyed about it all.
So I have asked for a public apology on the group from either the director or the trade association itself, along the lines of "I am sorry for any implication in private messages to Wing Commander where I questioned whether Wing Commander had prior knowledge of *paedophile* and the situation and did not act on it. This was baseless and incorrect"
The latest salvo from her is that she has said she is happy to post that within the group, but suggests that it essentially makes the whole situation much more "public" ie to the whole group of 300ish people, rather than just whoever has been told behind the scenes.
So, what is best - let sleeping dogs lie, or to go nuclear and get the public apology but then be visibly linked to this situation?
I very much want to show this person up for her snivelly underhanded chats with various people, and also want to distance myself as much as I can from this horrid situation.
So over to you - what would you do?
In my professional capacity, I am a member of a trade association for my line of work, which is primarily domestic cleaning. Almost all of the trade association activity is via a private Facebook page, run and administered by the directors of the association. Approx 300 paid members, across the UK.
An ex-member of the group (he's been out of the group and association for about 1-2 months now, as I understand it) has been found to be a convicted paedophile. I discovered this last night, completely by random chance. I was in contact with him 8 months ago as he offers training in a sub-set of my work, something I want to get into. I had long since lost his contact details so googled his name. Top two articles were news articles about him and his crimes. I did some light internet sleuthing, and was 95% confident it was him.
I messaged 2 other people (young adult women, if it makes any difference) who I know were either about to, or already were in contact with him about training, wishing to alert them to the possibility of my findings being true. I did nothing else beyond that.
One of those two people contacted the trade association and subsequently a significant number of other members have had information passed on, and it has rather spread like wildfire. When I wake up this morning, I have got various snotty messages from one of the directors, essentially accusing me of knowing about this chap and deliberately deciding to sit on the info.
I have screenshots of all the messages, now a private apology from the person making the accusations acknowledging they were way out of line. That would normally be the end of it and I would let it lie there.
However, there is various chatter on the group, from various different people which strongly suggests that conversations have been had privately, expressing the fact that I knew and didn't say anything. I have not been named, and a layperson and 80-90% of the group would not be able to tie it to me, but anyone that had been spoken to privately would put two and two together, and I feel pretty bloody annoyed about it all.
So I have asked for a public apology on the group from either the director or the trade association itself, along the lines of "I am sorry for any implication in private messages to Wing Commander where I questioned whether Wing Commander had prior knowledge of *paedophile* and the situation and did not act on it. This was baseless and incorrect"
The latest salvo from her is that she has said she is happy to post that within the group, but suggests that it essentially makes the whole situation much more "public" ie to the whole group of 300ish people, rather than just whoever has been told behind the scenes.
So, what is best - let sleeping dogs lie, or to go nuclear and get the public apology but then be visibly linked to this situation?
I very much want to show this person up for her snivelly underhanded chats with various people, and also want to distance myself as much as I can from this horrid situation.
So over to you - what would you do?
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