An innocent man has been massively defamed, received death threats and was interviewed by police - just for taking a selfie in front of a Darth Vadar cut-out. The luck is not strong with this one.

The man was shopping in Melbourne when he went to take a selfie in front of a Star Wars cut-out. Some children were waiting to also get their photo taken, and so he told them he was just taking a quick picture of himself to send to his own kids.

The mother of the children by the cut-out arrived moments after the man left and mistakenly thought he'd taken a photo of her kids. She followed the man out of the shop and, rather than confront him, secretly took a picture of him which she posted on Facebook. She accompanied his image with a comment accusing him of being a "creep" who had approached her children, photographed them, and then told them that he was sending their photo "to a 16 yr old". She rounded off the post by saying police had been contacted and were now on the hunt for him, warning others to "be safe with your kids".

Her post was shared thousands of times. The man was alerted of his image and the allegations going viral by his panicked partner who spotted it the next day. He immediately identified himself to police to clear things up and was interviewed at length, with his phone inspected.

A retraction post was eventually made on Facebook by the mother, however it was estimated only to have been viewed one-fiftieth of the time in comparison to the original inflammatory post. The man also received death threats.

  That innocent selfie of two men, both deeply misunderstood.
 
  The photo of the man taken by the mother which was shared thousands of times. The shop name behind him, unfortunately apt.
 
  The post by the mother calling the man a "creep".
 

Media lawyer, Justin Quill said the innocent man could bring a defamatory claim which could result in a "a very substantial sum of money" for M+K lawyers him. It is not yet known whether the man will be pursuing a claim. 
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 18 May 15 02:19

How sad that some women immediately assume a man is up to no good. I completely agree with being safe and aware with your children, but jumping to these sorts of conclusions and then running off to social media without proof is ridiculous. The vast majority of men mean no harm to children. I hope the guy can recover from this and I think he should seek legal advice and take it further. Silly woman.