60 Minutes abduction scandal agent Adam Whittington ordered to pay $300k over defamatory posts

Former Australian soldier and child recovery agent Adam Whittington has been ordered to cough up more than $300,000 by a NSW court. He’s already said it’s never going to happen.

Pictured is Adam Whittington, and Australian mother Sally Faulkner and presenter Tara Brown.

A former Australian soldier at the centre of the 60 Minutes child abduction scandal in Lebanon has been ordered to cough up more than $300,000 after losing a defamation case against an award-winning female author and co-parenting coach.

The NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday found child recovery agent Adam Whittington had “clearly and unambiguously” defamed accredited family dispute resolution mediator Jasmine Newman by labelling her a “pedophile sympathiser” and a “fraud” in a series of online articles and social media posts.

Justice Nicholas Chen ordered Whittington to pay Newman $160,000 in damages, plus an additional $147,000 in legal costs, which will be passed onto Newman’s barrister.

However, The Daily Telegraph can reveal Newman is unlikely to see any money owed to her, after Whittington earlier vowed not to pay up, regardless of the court ruling.

60 Minutes presenter Tara Brown and producer Stephen Rice (right) arriving at Sydney Airport, after they were released on bail from prison in Beirut in 2016. Picture: AFP

Adam Whittington arriving at Stockholm airport welcomed by his wife Karin Whittington after being detained in Beirut, Lebanon in 2016. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

“Your scumbag client won’t get one cent. That I promise,” he wrote to Newman’s barrister in an email in December and which was tendered to court as part of the lawsuit.

Whittington, a dual British-Australian citizen, was thrust into the international spotlight in 2016 when he was detained alongside Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and four 60 Minutes crew – reporter Tara Brown, senior producer Stephen Rice, sound recordist David Ballment and cameraman Ben Williamson – when their attempt to recover Faulkner’s children in a Lebanese street came unstuck.

Channel 9 secured a deal worth $500,000 with the children’s father to have Ms Faulkner and the 60 Minutes team released after almost two weeks in a Beirut prison.

Whittington and his team languished in jail for a further four months before Whittington was allowed to return to his home in Sweden.

Meanwhile, Newman authored a book in 2020 titled The Child Snatchers: The Complex Nature of Parent-Child Abductions, which included a chapter critiquing the 2016 Lebanese operation.

According to court documents, Whittington launched a public campaign against Newman, claiming she had defamed him by publishing “garbage, lies, exaggeration [and] made up horse s**t”.

Whittington gave an interview to Ch 7’s Sunday Night months after his release from a Beirut prison. Picture: Supplied/Facebook

Jasmin Newman, author of The Child Snatchers: The Complex Nature of Parent-Child Abductions. She successfully sued Whittington for defamation. Picture: Supplied

The court heard he used a blog on his personal website, a web page connected with his company ‘Child Abduction Recovery International’ and his public social media accounts to accuse her of being a pedophile sympathiser, a fraud, dishonest and a misogynist.

“Jasmin Newman, you are a disgraceful fraud, liar, and the most disgusting pedophile sympathisers (sic) in Australia,” Whittington wrote in a 114-page article on his website and referred to in court documents.

“It’s very clear and true you hate women who protect their sexually abused kids.”

Newman launched legal action against Whittington in February 2021 after repeated legal attempts to have him remove the material were unsuccessful.

Whittington, who is now believed to be based in Russia, filed a defence and a cross claim in August 2021, in which he claimed he was justified in publishing the material because it was “substantially true”.

The court heard Whittington initially participated in the proceedings but stopped engaging with the legal process in mid-2024, prompting the court to award default judgment to Newman at the end of last year.

Tara Brown being escorted from a Lebanese courthouse to Baabda Prison for women during the 60 Minutes scandal. Picture: AFP

Australian Sally Faulkner, the mother of the two Australian children, gestures as she sits in a mini van after she released from jail in 2016. Picture: AP

In his judgment on Wednesday, Justice Chen found Newman had proven each of the articles, blogs and social media posts were defamatory, that the imputations were “grave or extreme”, and that the material would have had a great personal impact on her.

“The [defamatory] imputations … strike at heart of [Newman’s] integrity, honesty and professional competence - matters that are, given her professional calling, undeniably of importance,” he said.

However, Justice Chen said it was unclear from the evidence how many people had seen the offending material - of which he described one piece as little more than “impenetrable and unbalanced ramblings”.

He also noted there was nothing before the court to suggest any of Newman’s colleagues or fellow parenting professionals had read the posts.

“I am, therefore, unpersuaded that the defamatory material has had any significant impact upon her work as a family mediator,” he said.

As part of Justice Chen’s order, Whittington will also be required to remove all the defamatory material currently online and is banned from publishing anything further that could harm Newman’s reputation.