Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead could still find herself out of pocket despite the Federal Court awarding her $280,000 in damages after finding that The Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston was not justified in calling her a “cretin”.

Justice Michael Lee on Wednesday rejected the publisher’s defence of “honest opinion”, saying two columns had not set out “proper material” to support comments that Dr Stead was “cretinously stupid” and made stupid investments in two worthless companies.