Google to face defamation lawsuit over image search results

Melbourne man Milorad “Michael” Trkulja has won his high court battle to sue the search engine Google for defamation over images and search results that link him to the Melbourne criminal underworld, the Guardian reports.

Trkulja said he would continue legal action against Google until it removed his name and photos from the internet.

Trkulja, who was shot in the back in a Melbourne restaurant in 2004, successfully argued in the Victorian supreme court in 2012 that Google defamed him by publishing photos of him linked to hardened criminals of Melbourne’s underworld.

Four years later the Victorian court of appeal overturned the decision, finding the case had no prospect of successfully proving defamation.

The high court disputed that ruling in a judgment on Wednesday and ordered Google to pay Trkulja’s legal costs.

Trkulja said he would continue the legal action until he got the result he wanted.

Google searches for “Melbourne criminal underworld photos” bring up images of Trkulja alongside gangland figures Mick Gatto, Carl Williams, Chopper Reid, Mario Condello and Mark and Jason Moran, Trkulja’s lawyer Guy Reynolds told the high court in March.