“It got really confrontational and aggressive,” Mr Barilaro said. “This guy was going to punch on, there was no doubt. He wasn’t happy to just abuse me.
“Eventually this guy was escorted out, but he stood out the front of the window for ages giving me the bird. I said ‘I’m not doing this any more, I’m not going out any more, I’m done’.”
Mr Barilaro said Google was asked to take the videos down but left them up because “they don’t care”. He described their two-week review process as “a crock of shit” which was likely conducted by a junior staff member who had different politics to him.
“Maybe they like the number of views that Friendlyjordies was getting,” he said. “The abuse that I’ve copped, I lay it square at the feet of Google.
“I hate Google, I’m sorry to say. If they can’t see these videos for what they are, there’s something bloody wrong ... they own all of this, they can’t run away from this.”
Mr Barilaro said abusive messages he received online included “kill yourself” and “your daughter should be tied to a pole and raped in front of you”.
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He said he first became aware of the Friendlyjordies account run by Mr Shanks in 2020 when a journalist from the Daily Telegraph submitted a media request asking about one of the videos. Later, as more videos were published, “they broke me”.
“It’s all done deliberately in a way to attack your credibility, to defame you; there’s always an undertone of something,” he said. “It just sparks hatred. I’m sure in other countries he would be up for hate crimes.”
Mr Barilaro said when the bruz video was played in the Federal Court on Monday he became upset and court staff had to give him tissues, with his former staffer also breaking down in court when giving evidence about the situation.
He said Google has never offered him an apology or a judgment in his favour, despite making a settlement offer last year shortly after Mr Shanks released a video accusing him of having an account on the extramarital affair website Ashley Madison.
Mr Barilaro said there is “no truth whatsoever” to the claim he was on the website, and he believes Google’s settlement offer was a deliberate attempt to see if he would give up or run out of resources.
He said his lawyers have also been dragged into the “hellhole” after being mentioned in the videos, resulting in them being targeted by emails, phone calls and fake reviews. He said if Google had offered an apology, “jeez that would’ve gone a long way”.
“We may not be here today,” Mr Barilaro said.
Justice Steven Rares asked why he shouldn’t enter judgment for Mr Barilaro immediately and grant injunctions, given Google’s concession that Mr Barilaro was defamed.
Google’s barrister David Hume said there has not yet been an agreement on how the judgment would be expressed. Justice Rares said he would not enter judgment just yet.
The hearing continues.
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