A London businessman has won a test libel case in the High Court after a former friend created a false Facebook profile that implied he was gay. Mathew Firsht was awarded £22,000 (NZ$58,900) in damages in the case against Grant Raphael. Raphael created a fake Facebook.com profile properting that Firsht was "Looking for: Anything I can get" in terms of relationships. The fake profile then joined a number of gay groups including 'Gay Jews in London'. Both men work in television and fell out in a business dispute but Mr Firsht's business became successful while Mr Raphael's went into voluntary liquidation. Deputy Judge Richard Parkes QC said that Raphael's claim that a random stranger used his computer for an hour while in his flat created the profile as "utterly far-fetched" adding that he was "glib and loquacious, always prepared, it seemed to me, to talk his way out of a difficulty, with no apparent insight into the implausibility of some of his answers". Speaking to More4 News, Firsht said the ruling "will create shock waves with anyone who has the intent of writing a defamatory material" online. More on this story, including a video interview with Mathew Firsht, is on the link below.