[THREAD] 1/ Seeing as a @brianmoore666 retweet has brought me a host of rugby fan followers, I thought as a treat I'd introduce you to the greatest ever rugby-based #ukemplaw case - Mason v Huddersfield Giants. Here's the link: https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2013/2869.html&query=(mason)+AND+(v)+AND+(huddersfield) #Rugby #rugbyleague

2/ As many of you will know, Keith Mason is a Welsh international who played for many of the great rugby league teams post-Millennium and is now plying his trade as an actor, boosted by his friendship with Mickey Rourke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Mason_(rugby_league) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/49649384

3/ At the end of each rugby league season, many of the clubs hold an event (or at least did back in 2012) called Mad Monday, which the Judge in this case described in language I've never before seen in a judgment:

4/ During this communal bender, Keith needed the toilet. He made the age-old mistake of leaving his phone at the bar. That left teammate Scott Moore with an opportunity not to be missed. He took a photo of his own anus on Mason's phone.

5/ After the communal bender was over, Mason staggered home and at some point decided to have a bath. His girlfriend had a look through his photos of Mad Monday, saw the photo of Moore's anus & did what all good girlfriends would do: tweeted it from Mason's account.

6/ The club was alerted to the tweet by some of its sponsors. Concerned, they sent a copy to Mason's agent, who gave evidence in the High Court that his first thought on seeing it was that he'd been sent a photo of a hairy peach.

7/ I'm just going to leave this photo here so that you can judge for yourself about whether you'd be confused. Is this a photo of anuses (ani?) or hairy peaches?

8/ Anyway, Mr Mason removed the offending tweet, but was dismissed for sending it. He brought a wrongful dismissal claim before the High Court. Part of his claim was that the tweet was just the pretext for his dismissal, which was really due to a new manager not needing him.

9/ The club defended the dismissal claim on a reputational basis. Players tweeting photos of other players' anuses went against the club's reputation as a place upholding the best of family values.

10/ The Judge, HHJ Saffman (sitting in the High Court) was not convinced. He noted another facet of Mad Monday: that any player who didn't score during the season has to run naked through the streets of Huddersfield.

11/ If a club was willing to turn a blind eye to naked anuses running past children through Huddersfield's finest avenues, why did it react so differently when one of those anuses was placed on Twitter instead?

12/ Mr Mason won. He was awarded £167,311 (subject to tax) plus £35,000 costs. And he has the distinction of being involved in the only reported UK case to refer to "anus" and "hairy peach" in the judgment! [THREAD ENDS] #ukemplaw #Rugby #rugbyleague