When a woman posted about teacher Daniel Marriott being charged with recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, he sent her messages threatening to sue her because she dared to mention his upcoming court case.
Unluckily for Daniel, the messages are now in my possession and everyone gets to see them.
The ABC reports Marriott contracted HSV-2 (genital herpes) in 2020. He had it for about three years when formed a relationship with a woman in 2023.
She asked him if he was STI free and he said yes. The victim started feeling like she had the flu and developed sores.
She was soon diagnosed with HSV-2.
She asked him about it and he said: ‘Yeah, I didn’t think you’d get it though – you don’t have to worry, it’s not that bad, I live with it’.
The court heard he sent her messages about why he did it.
“You’re the most attractive person I’ve been with,” he said.
“I didn’t want to tell you.
“I didn’t want to risk us not having sex.”
Genital herpes cannot be cured and the woman will suffer physical and emotional impacts for the rest of her life.
Marriott was sentenced to 13 months but it will be served as a community-based order.
I was sent his defamation threats this week and have decided to amplify them because men silencing women for exposing their bad behaviour is part of the abuse cycle.
Over the past year or so, I have seen an uptick in the number of men threatening to sue women for defamation when we talk about their crimes.
Each week I get at least one DM or email from a perp telling me to take content down because I defamed them.
As a journalist I know the risks and I take the threats seriously because they can be expensive to fight.
That said, sometimes you just have to go out on a limb to let women know perps are prowling.
If Marriott comes into a woman’s orbit I want her to know he has this disease so she can make decisions about her own health and safety.
So yeah … sue me!
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