Jolene Bunting was given a five year order at the Court of Appeal on Friday
A former Belfast councillor who compared a drag queen to a wolf in make-up was properly restrained from any further harassment of him for a five-year period, the Court of Appeal ruled today.
Senior judges backed a decision to impose the injunction on Jolene Bunting amid claims she used social media to falsely portray actor Matthew Cavan as a child groomer.
Despite being entitled to lawfully protest about the performer’s activities, she was found to have crossed a line by wrongly associating it with paedophilia.
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Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said: “It was targeted at him and it is precisely the sort of public commentary from which it is foreseeable that the plaintiff may be the subject of public revulsion, hostility and even threat.”
In July 2022 Ms Bunting, a former independent unionist councillor, was involved in protests at an arts centre where Mr Cavan, also known as drag artist Cherrie Ontop, took part in a children’s story time event.
A group calling themselves Parents Against Grooming held banners which read “hands off our children” outside the MAC theatre in Belfast. Following the event a video appeared on YouTube which featured an image of a wolf and a photograph of Mr Cavan.
He previously told Belfast County Court the posting was a twisted portrayal of his work which left him horrified at being likened to the creature in make-up from the children’s fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood.
Mr Cavan said he received threats from paedophile hunters because of the posting on YouTube.
A group in east Belfast sent a message warning that they knew where he lived and were watching him, according to his evidence, while others told him to kill himself.
With the video clip viewed 22,000 times, Mr Cavan said the surrounding attention led to him losing three well-paid gigs. He was also put on anti-anxiety medication and had to install security cameras and lights at his home.
Ms Bunting denied specifically targeting Mr Cavan and insisted she was only concerned about safeguarding children.
She explained that she attended the protest after being “horrified” at press reports of alleged grooming within drag queen storytime events in England and the United States.
Expressing concern at the vetting processes, the former councillor insisted her issue was with the MAC, not the performer.
But the County Court judge held that her actions amounted to targeted harassment of Mr Cavan, with the intention to incite hatred and link him to child grooming and the sexualisation of children.
Ms Bunting was made subject to a five-year restraining order at that stage.
The judge then stated a case for the Court of Appeal to determine if her decision to impose the injunction was legally correct.
Proceedings centred on an assessment of whether the order was proportionate and justified given Ms Bunting’s freedom of expression rights under European law.
Ruling on the case today, Dame Siobhan said the previous court was entitled to conclude that the defendant’s conduct amounted to unlawful harassment.
Ms Bunting had a legitimate right to participate in protests against drag queen storytime as a concept, and even repeat those views in forceful or shocking terms through social media, the court held.
However, the Lady Chief Justice stated: “She was not entitled to associate the plaintiff with grooming of children and paedophilia by linking him with an individual in England who made an inappropriate comment when engaging in similar activity.
“The plaintiff cannot be tarred with the same brush.
“To cast the plaintiff in the same light was a serious slur on his reputation which was not evidenced.”
Backing the trial judge’s conclusions, Dame Siobhan confirmed: “Her decision to order an injunction to restrain further harassment of the plaintiff does not reveal any error of law.”
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