Wasn’t the whole point of crowdfunding supposed to be about enabling community and artistic projects to take place? That was how I remember it being sold to us, at any rate. But no, I got it wrong. It turns out that the real point of it is to help celebrities pay their legal bills.
Dr Christian Jessen, who appears on a Channel 4 show called Embarrassing Bodies, has been ordered by a Belfast court to pay £125,000 in libel damages to former Northern Irish first minister Arlene Foster for tweeting the false allegation that she was having an extra-marital affair. It is believed that legal costs could add a further £300,000 to his bill.
By Monday morning, Jessen had raised £7000 of the £150,000 he is hoping to raise.
How to pay? Not, apparently, from his earnings as a celebrity doctor. Jessen has set up a crowdfunding page, claiming that he is suffering from serious mental health issues and that he is considering launching an appeal.
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