03/02/2020 Economou v David De Freitas (Rev 1) [2016] EWHC 1853 (QB) (27 July 2016) 49. Fourthly, where there are publications about the same subject matter which are not the subject of complaint (because of limitation issues or because of jurisdictional issues) there can be difficult points of causation which arise: see Tesla Motors v BBC [2013] EWCA (Civ) 152 and Karpov v Browder and others [2013] EMLR 3071 (QB); [2014] EMLR 8. The decision of the House of Lords in Associated Newspapers v Dingle [1964] AC 371 does not prevent these difficulties. That decision was not a decision on causation. The decision in Dingle prevents a defendant from relying in mitigation of damages for libel on the fact that the same or similar defamatory material has been published in other newspapers about the same claimant. Dingle does not address the issue of whether a publication has caused serious harm. 50. Fifthly, as Bingham LJ stated in Slipper v BBC [1991] QB 283 at 300, the law would part company with the realities of life if it held that the damage caused by publication of a libel began and ended with publication to the original publishee. Defamatory statements are objectionable not least because of their propensity "to percolate through underground channels and contaminate hidden springs" through what has sometimes been called "the grapevine effect". … " 19. The causation problems referred to in Dingemans J's fourth point are those that arise when the claimant points to some hostile remark or other adverse event in his life as evidence of harm to reputation caused by the publication complained of, and there are other possible causes of the remark or event, in the form of other publications to the same or similar effect. Dingle has no bearing on problems of this kind. Relevant factual background 20. Mr Economou and Ms de Freitas first met at a party in 2008 or 2009. In the Autumn of 2012 they became friends. Over a period of weeks they carried on a flirtatious correspondence on social media and by text. On 23 December 2012 they met, and spent that evening and night together at Mr Economou's flat in the King's Road, London SW3, where they had sex. The following day, Christmas Eve, they went shopping together. After they parted company Mr Economou did some internet searches, and received some texts from Ms de Freitas and a friend of hers. As a result, in the course of a telephone conversation with Ms de Freitas he told her that he did not want to see her again, and hung up on her. 21. Ms de Freitas was upset by this, and made it known to others by social media, text, and otherwise, that she was upset. Later on 24 December 2012 she posted a status update on her Facebook, which referred to a customer at a Cambridge petrol station expressing strong disapproval of "whoever upset and hurt me". At around this time Sebastian Gosden-Hood, an acquaintance of both, learned from his sister that "something had happened" involving Ms de Freitas. Some of what Ms de Freitas said to others gave an explanation for her upset. On Christmas Day she sent a text to her friend Henriette Schroder saying that Mr Economou had "fucked and chucked" her. She evidently told her cousin Lizzie Noel that Mr Economou had done something bad to her, because on 26 December Ms Noel texted him making such an accusation. 22. Mr Economou learned at the time of the Facebook status update, and of the accusation referred to in the text from Lizzie Noel. He later heard from Henriette Schroder that Ms de Freitas had told people at Ms Schroder's New Year's Eve party that she had been raped by Mr Economou. On 3 January 2013 Tanya Macrae told him that Ms de Freitas had told several people that he had assaulted her, drugged her, and wouldn't let her escape from his flat. Ms Macrae said that Ms de Freitas had asked a mutual friend who was a known gossip to spread this information. Mr Economou became very upset. At 17:38 on 4 January 2013 he called Mr de Freitas and left a voicemail saying that Ms de Freitas had "been making a lot of false accusations and allegations about me, some of them are very serious". He said that "rumours are now going around my friends" and that he was on his way to Chelsea Police Station to file an official report complaining of her conduct. 23. Chelsea was the police station at which Ms de Freitas reported that same day that Mr Economou had raped her at his home address between 23 and 24 December 2012. As a result, when he arrived at the police station to report Ms de Freitas, Mr Economou was arrested on suspicion of rape. He was www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2016/1853.htm 6/58