18C student case: Alex Wood’s legal bill met after overwhelming public response

Alex Wood was exonerated over racial hatred claims and then hit with a bill to pay costs incurred by his accuser’s solicitor.

Alex Wood, One of the QUT students from Brisbane involved in the 18C case. Picture: Joseph Byford.

Alex Wood, the university student who was exonerated over racial hatred claims and then hit with a $41,336 bill to pay legal costs incurred by the solicitor of his accuser, will not be out of pocket a cent.

An overwhelming response from members of the public to his request for help via a recently-launched online Gofundme page, flagged in The Weekend Australian, saw his target surpassed this morning.

An anonymous donor made a $5000 gift, the largest of more than 440 donations since the weekend. The Queensland University of Technology student said he could now pay the legal bill with funds left over to help three other students who paid their accuser in a process attacked by lawyers as ‘extortion and blackmail’.

“I am incredibly grateful for the amount of support that I have received, the situation that I have been caught up in is ridiculous but the amount of public, emotional and financial support is amazing,’’ Mr Wood, 23, told supporters today.

“Due to this goal being met in under five days and your amazing support, I have decided to raise the goal by an extra $15,000. Hopefully this will allow me to pay other people that have been caught up in this legal fiasco and meet the costs of the other students that paid out so they weren’t dragged through the Federal Circuit Court. I am completely overwhelmed, thank you all so much.”

Mr Wood received the $41,336 bill from lawyers for Susan Moriarty, the solicitor for QUT’s former administrative officer, Cindy Prior, who had accused Mr Wood and six other students under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act because of Facebook posts.

Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Jarrett comprehensively dismissed Ms Prior’s claims and her $250,000 damages action against Mr Wood and fellow students Calum Thwaites and Jackson Powell in November last year. Ms Prior was ordered to pay the costs, estimated at $200,000 for the students’ lawyers, however the parties do not expect that she will be able to find the money.

Mr Wood and his lawyers adopted a rare legal strategy, arguing that the case brought against him was “completely hopeless” and that Ms Moriarty should be made personally liable for their legal costs. But the rejection of this argument by Judge Jarrett saw Ms Moriarty’s costs of defending herself from the threat of personal financial loss being sheeted back to Mr Wood, resulting in the $41,336 bill.

Mr Wood, now a graduate engineer, became embroiled in racial hatred claims in May 2013 when he walked into a computer room at QUT with some friends to check their emails. They were asked by Ms Prior, who is indigenous, whether they were Aboriginal. They are white. They were then asked to leave the ‘indigenous-only’ room. After leaving peacefully, Mr Wood posted on Facebook that he had been told to leave the room, and he questioned a QUT policy which he suggested endorsed “segregation”.

The Human Rights Commission managed the case for 14 months without telling any of the seven students in Ms Prior’s complaint that they were accused of acting unlawfully under section 18C. Judge Jarrett ruled that Mr Wood was “rallying against discrimination”, and had not breached 18C.

But three other students paid up after being told by Ms Moriarty, acting on behalf of Ms Prior, that they could get out of the legal action for confidential settlements of $5000 each. One of those students, Kyran Findlater, told The Australian he had done nothing wrong but the stress over being labelled a racist prompted him to pay money he could ill afford.

The case triggered a debate about free speech and whether section 18C has been misused by complainants who rely on ‘hurt feelings’ to seek payouts. The conduct of the Human Rights Commission in the QUT case has also been closely investigated because the students were never told by the human rights body of the serious allegations against them.

On his Gofundme page, Mr Wood wrote: “I am in no way a racist and for those unfamiliar with the facts of the case, it may brand me for life I believe being accused as a racist is not just defamation, it is an attach on my character and upbringing. Once I was completely exonerated of any wrongdoing by the Federal Circuit Court, I did as is my right question the legal advice that (Ms Prior) received. I attempted to make (Ms Moriarty) accountable for the costs I had incurred defending her client’s claim. Fortunately my own lawyers have stood by me without ever asking for me to put my hand in my pocket, and will only ever get paid if I receive costs from (Ms Prior). The impact of this last few years on me and my family has been immense. There are no words to express how grateful I am for the public’s unwavering support throughout the entire process.”

Donors to his legal appeal have commended Mr Wood for defending himself Some have commented adversely on the complaint and legal process that has lasted four years and the handling by the Human Rights Commission. Others have called for the repeal of section 18C. The Gofundme appeal has been promoted by News Corp journalists including Miranda Devine and Chris Kenny who have tweeted the link and discussed it in radio and television broadcasts. Several donors each pledged $1000, leading up to the largest single donation of $5000 this morning.

Mr Wood, Mr Powell, Mr Thwaites and their legal teams received recognition from The Australian as the newspaper’s Australians of the Year in January.