By Norman Silvester in The Sunday Mail
Two high profile business tycoons have threatened to bankrupt a social media blogger who falsely accused them of being involved in organised crime.
Sandy Easdale, 55, and brother James, 52, who bought a coveted convent site at Clerkhill in Dumbarton from the Carmelite nuns were each awarded £200,000 at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
And now the brothers have now have issued a warning that they will pursue blogger Paul Hendry for the £400,000 after a criminal case against him concluded last month.
Hendry, 59, had branded the businessmen “gangsters” in several posts on YouTube and X (Twitter) last March.
Easdale family adviser, Jack Irvine, said: “Sandy and James are actively pursuing the £400,000 awarded.
“They will bankrupt him if necessary. Internet bullies need to understand they cannot cause distress to individuals, their friends and family by inventing lies and escape prosecution.”
The Easdales raised the damages action against Hendry at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in May. Hendry, of Eastbourne, Sussex, was ordered to take down posts and videos carrying the derogatory claims and not repeat them.
He was summoned back to court after he repeated the allegations on social media in November and December.
At a hearing last month he was found guilty of contempt of court by Lord Braid.
Hendry, who appeared via a video link and represented himself, apologised to the Easdales.
He told the court he was on benefits and is in arrears with a £1800-a-month mortgage, adding: “It looks like my house in going to be repossessed.”
Lord Braid deferred sentence on Hendry for six months.
None of the £400,000 has been paid so far to the Easdales, who own McGill’s Buses of Greenock.
In August Hendry was found guilty of harassment at Wirral Magistrates’ Court by using social media to wrongly accuse a 40-year-old local man of being a “drug and gun lord”. Hendry was fined £250 and ordered to pay compensation.
In 2017, Sandy Easdale won a £200,000 case against John Houston, 38, of Greenock, who defamed him on social media by claiming his firms were involved in criminality.
Paul Hendry declined to comment when contacted by the Sunday Mail.
Top picture: James Easdale at Clerkhill with the Carmelite nuns and a statue of St Francis which they saved when the old chapel there was demolished on the housing site.