A mum being sued by a prominent Fife businessman is refusing to apologise for Facebook comments about the construction of a new build home within ‘touching distance’ of her property.
Former Raith Rovers chairman Alex Penman took court action, demanding Niki Caira pays him £75,000 for posting allegedly defamatory comments.
The case called at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday and has been continued to see if a settlement can be reached.
Ms Caira said Mr Penman has demanded a public apology, the Facebook posts to be deleted and for her to not discuss or post about the new build being erected next to her home in Thornton.
However, the mum-of-seven insists she will not back down, describing the court action as an attempt to shut down her freedom of speech.
“I’m going to keep saying my opinion because I believe it’s true,” she said.
“I’m going to go against the advice I’ve been given and I’m not going to apologise using their words.
“I would rather take the consequences that go with it because I need to be true to myself.”
‘I need to keep fighting’
The 39-year-old has been vocal on Facebook about the new build house being erected within touching distance of her home on Low Road.
On July 13, she received letters from Robert F MacDonald Solicitors representing KJJ Properties and Alex Penman asking her to publish an apology on her Facebook profile and delete her posts referencing any allegations.
Ms Caira addressed the letters from the solicitors on Facebook and asked others not to leave comments of a similar nature on the same day.
Two days later, she received a letter notifying her that an interim order hearing would be held July 26. The case will be heard again in two weeks.
“I need to keep fighting, because it will just keep going on,” she says.
“This behaviour will keep continuing and the big cats win and the wee people don’t.”
Ms Caira is still looking for a lawyer to represent her as she is struggling to find someone to take on her case.
“I went to a lawyer and he wanted £5,000 to look at it.
“But if I’ve got £5,000, I would rather use that to buy equipment for my son who’s disabled.”
Prospect of settlement to be discussed
Mr Penman’s solicitor Robert F MacDonald said Ms Caira indicated when the case called that she would apologise to his client.
He said: “The court yesterday continued the two court actions which had been raised by my client, one of which was against Mrs Caira as an individual, and the other against Mr and Mrs Caira.
“The existing court orders that were in place protecting Mr Penman from being further defamed by Mrs Caira, and interdicting Mr and Mrs Caira from interfering with the erection and sale of the two dwelling houses being built by my client were left in place.
“We noted that Mrs Caira indicated to the court through her representative that she is prepared to apologise to Mr Penman for the defamatory remarks that she made about him on her Facebook page.
“The cases were continued to enable us to consider what form that apology should take, and to discuss whether there is any prospect of any overall settlement being achieved.”
