Colin Ambler/cvnznews.com
Drag queens suing Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church for defamation claim the church is withholding key private messages and denying them a fair hearing.
The NZ Herald today reported in an open Justice article, performers Sunita Torrance and Daniel Lockett, along with their company Haus of Flash Ltd, have filed a $2 million claim alleging breach of contract, conspiracy to injure, unlawful means conspiracy and defamation over Destiny’s campaign against their “Rainbow Library” events. They say Destiny’s actions led to shows being cancelled and that comments describing their events as “grooming” and “targeting our innocent kids with their filth” seriously damaged their reputations.
In the High Court at Auckland last week, the drag collective’s lawyer, Chris Griggs, asked the court to strike out the defence of Tamaki, Destiny Church and several members, arguing they had failed to comply with court orders to disclose internal communications. Judges had previously directed the defendants to provide relevant messages, but Griggs said crucial Facebook Messenger chats had not been produced.
The “smoking gun”, he argued, was evidence that Tamaki and others were part of a Messenger group where an ad for the drag queens’ Gisborne “Living Library” show was shared—yet no record of that chat has been disclosed. Griggs said without those “intra‑party” communications, his clients could not have a fair trial.
Two Destiny members, Leighton Packer and Terangimarie Ngahuka, are also under scrutiny after initially saying their phones were broken, then later claiming they were lost during house moves. Griggs said that “strained credibility beyond breaking point”, though their lawyer, Umar Kuddus, called accusations of dishonesty improper and unproved.
Tamaki’s lawyer, Scott McColgan, told the court his clients had searched Tamaki’s iPhone using agreed key words and had not “wilfully failed to comply”, suggesting further targeted searches could resolve the issue without the “extreme step” of striking out the defence. Justice Liz Gellert has reserved her decision.
Earlier, another Destiny member, Hohepa Haeata, was found to have defamed the drag queens with online comments accusing them of being “sick pedos” and a “demon”, and was ordered to pay $40,000 in damages.
