A student wrongly named by Channel Seven as the Bondi Junction attacker has settled with the network for an undisclosed amount.
Benjamin Cohen engaged two of Australia’s foremost defamation lawyers, Patrick George of Giles George as his solicitor and Sue Chrysanthou SC as barrister, to pursue a civil case against the network.
A concerns notice was sent to Seven last week with the network revealing on Friday it has settled with the university student and issued an apology.
Mr Cohen’s name was wrongly linked to the April 13 attack by Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington shortly after 6am the following day and again by journalist Lucy McLeod 10 minutes later.
Queensland man Joel Cauchi, 40, has since been identified as the man in an Australian Kangaroos jersey who went on a murderous rampage through the popular Sydney eastern suburbs shopping centre.
Ben Cohen (pictured) was wrongly identified by internet sleuths as the knifeman behind the Bondi Junction Westfield attack
The knifeman (pictured during the attack) was revealed to be 40-year-old Joel Cauchi
Hours the Seven wrong reports, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley confirmed that Cauchi was the attacker who was shot dead by hero police officer Amy Scott.
Seven issued an on-air apology to Mr Cohen on Sunday read by reporter Sarah Jane Bell during a cross.
‘Earlier this morning, reports of the incident incorrectly named the perpetrator as 40-year-old Benjamin Cohen,’ she said on air.
‘It was later confirmed that the name of the 40-year-old is Joel Cauchi from Queensland. Seven apologises for any distress caused by our earlier reports.’
Online trolls on Saturday night wrongly identified Mr Cohen and his name began trending on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mr Cohen told news.com.au earlier this week that he had been inundated with friend requests and messages on social media.
‘It’s just gone crazy, it’s like ‘look, you’ve got the wrong guy’,’ Mr Cohen, a first year computer science student, told news.com.au.
‘People don’t really think too hard about what they’re posting and how it might affect someone. It’s very dangerous how people could just make stuff up and destroy people’s lives.’
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